Our Christmas Day '08

Well, we did it.

We survived our first Christmas day away from home. Away from a nation that recognizes Christmas. Away from Grandma Joan's beef and au jus! Oh, the difficulties!

We had several good cries on Christmas proper, but picked ourselves up by the stockings and dressed up (sort of) to head to base for Christmas dinner. The O'Club was offering a nice, themed Christmas dinner that was the only thing that sounded appealing to me. I made a lovely lasagna, but it grew old after 1 pm. We headed to the O'Club in the rain (apparently that was the same as home!) only to find the longest line we've ever encountered when waiting to eat. My growling stomach was NOT having this. Plus, the meal ended in an hour. We would still be in line in an hour. Jared looked defeated, but me being me, I found an alternative solution. I converted my hard earned cash into yen (painful with the poor exchange rate!) and we took one more lap around base to find ANY options for a Christmas meal. Suddenly, I blurted out "McDonald's!" They are always open, it's their slogan. We tore out Gate 2 and had ourselves a meal for the lonely expats-Big Mac, fries, ginger ale for me, Coke Zero for my beloved. Now, I must preface with saying I don't remember ever ordering a Big Mac in the States. I am more of a McChicken kind of gal, but ole' Mac daddy was number 1 on the combo, and easily identifiable on the menu. There was some sort of teriyaki chicken (hello sodium and swollen fingers) and breaded shrimp sandwich (ick). Plus, the ketchup TASTED LIKE KETCHUP!!! This was NOT the case in Germany, so I was so excited.

After our big meal we headed home. We played the Wii, reminisced about Christmases past and called my mom. I realized after I dialed that I should've called my grandmother's, as that was where everyone was at that time, but I didn't want to hang up after all the effort-I could leave a cherry holiday message on the machine! I was shocked when my mom answered, sounding awful. Apparently sometime after hanging up with us on their Christmas eve (our Christmas morning) and that call, she came down with the flu! It sounds like she is on the road to recovery, but darn the luck!

We survived our first Christmas day away. Saying it was hard is the lamest understatement I could make. Plus, to me, Christmas is more than the day but the entire season. I know this is the place for us to be, for so many reasons, but it's not exactly easy to rationalize when you are crying for memories from Christmas past. I'll let you know how it goes until after Jan. 1. We are so going home next year though! I'll eat Cheerios all summer long if that means we can make it home next Christmas.