Merry Christmas - 2011

I'm having a terrible time with my pictures tonight, so I'm gonna go ahead and post.  I hope to share some more pictures from Christmas soon!!

Unfortunately there were no camel races for the Rowlands this year on Christmas day, but we still had a fabulous day!  It was probably one of the busiest seasons we have had in a long time, due to my job.  I wish I could post a bunch of those pictures, but I can't due to security.  So, I chose a few from home to share instead.

First things first, Matt and I got to meet Minka Kelly (I'm a big Friday Night Lights fan!), Robert Horry (lets be honest, I had to look up who he was) and Jordin Sparks (she's striking and very personable).   They came to the Embassy for a brief visit with the Marines and Matt was in charge of helping escort them.   It's good to be an LTC wife and work with the head marine's wife!  We got to chat with them a bit and snap a few pictures before they were off to the other camps.  FUN!

Other highlights from work were the Children's Christmas party - which was a brunch with Santa, Christmas Caroling, and a family movie night complete with a cook out and hot chocolate.  It was all a little more involved than it sounds considering my co-worker and I were in charge of it all, but we were happy everything turned out well and the families were very appreciative of it all.  We also held several activities for the staff, brought in and gave away live Christmas trees through the Trees for Troops program,  decorated the Embassy, and more that I won't bore you with.  You get the idea!  Thank you to my Co-Co CLO - who also happens to be my husband.  He is worked quite a bit by my job!

The kiddos have enjoyed being home from school and lounging in their pajamas.  We cooked a nice Christmas Eve dinner since I didn't cook on Thanksgiving.  We were able to Skype with my mom and dad and Aunt Terri which is always fun.  For some reason I managed to get so tickled about forgetting what I was gonna say that I had tears coming out my eyes, lol.  Terri decided I hadn't had enough sleep.  :-)  I honestly don't know what came over me.

Under the Christmas tree, Landen found a new bat (surprise, surprise!), a few shirts, a bible devotion book, some skull headphones, and some new Vans shoes.  Hayden got a new laptop, a remote control helicopter from Nana & Pop, Spy Car and Spy Glasses, and battling bug set.  The boys both also got Rock Band from Grammy and Pawpaw and love it!  Our old one had broken...  Jordyn got an American Girl doll, some matching doll clothes, finger paints, some new dress up clothes, and lots of other surprises.   Matt got a new Nike+ GPS watch and I got some cool new Ray Bans.  Santa was good to us this year!  Santa even left a receipt in Hayden's stocking....  he evidently shops at the 100 Fills store.  Interesting, huh?!  ;)  



It's not official yet, so I won't let the cat out of the bag until we know for sure, but we have an inkling of where we are moving next.  Clue #1 - United States of  ________________!!!!!!

Update:  So, before I got the pictures on here and posted this entry, it became official.  Brush up on your BlackJack because we are moving to another desert - only, this time in the U.S.  Yep - Las Vegas, here we come!!!!!!!