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Gabe had his eighth birthday and I can still remember the cold and snowy day in New York when he was born. No cold and snow for his 8th however. We had a heat wave. He had his party on Saturday at Build A Bear, a shop that is conveniently located everywhere we’ve lived. We even found one in Melbourne at Chadstone. Chadstone also had a 3 story Borders Book Store with an escalator. If I got paid money for all the times I mention Borders in this blog, I’d be rich. Chadstone is as close as you get to an American mall in Australia. In fact, when our Aussie friend Martyn went to an American mall, he told his wife that it was just like Chadstone. Build a Bear parties involve being led around the shop by a cheery worker who helps you choose, stuff, and name a bear. The kids had to jump up and down, kiss a heart, hug their bears, and take a pledge of responsibility. Gabe wanted to buy his stuffed dog a football uniform to wear while watching the Super Bowl and Zeke wanted to buy his bear a High School Musical t-shirt. When we finally left the shop, Josiah declared that he could never get a job at Build A Bear. All that smiling and happy talk would be impossible. For Gabe’s birthday dinner, we went to Chuck E Cheese. On the drive there the kids did a sing along to Gabe’s new High School Musical CD thoughtfully given by his Aunt Marie. She sent the CD and a whoopie cushion. I’m not sure which one will eventually annoy me more. I had high hopes for a night at Chuck E Cheese that wasn’t full on. I thought, “it’s Tuesday night, hardly anyone will be there.” Silly me. A school had an event going on and it was it’s usual madhouse. The kids got busy spending their coins on the games. Abby loves to punch the ducks, Zeke loves to squish the spiders, Gabe declared moving magnets easy, and Josiah couldn’t figure out why some little kid can win millions of tickets on ski ball when he can only win two tickets every time. After we left the madness, I told Josiah that just as he could never work at Build A Bear, I could never work at Chuck E Cheese. Abby asked why not. Josiah said, “Because it’s loud and crowded and filled with obnoxious children.” There are somethings the boy does notice, but his giant baritone sitting in his classroom for him to take home today was not one of them. For dessert we went to Krispy Kreme in honor of Dale and conveniently arrived while the donuts were hot. When we were choosing the donuts, the donut guy said that if the kids brought in their report cards, they could get a free donut for every A. Too bad their father isn’t here to steal all the donuts they’ll soon be collecting. On the way home, Abby decided to ask everyone in the car if they were an optimist or a pessimist. Josiah’s reply was, “I am not the guy who would say the glass is half full and I am not the guy who would say the glass is half empty. I am the guy who would say, What glass?”

Apparently, it has become a special treat to drive over to FOB Diamondback for a meal every now and then. Because I needed to go to the APO to mail Gabe’s birthday present, I went with the gang for lunch at Diamondback yesterday. I would say that the grass is always greener, but we don’t have any grass here like they do in Tikrit! Anyway, the food was fine, nothing really to write home about. That still doesn’t keep me from blogging about it though. After lunch, Glenn and I went to the barber, Robert ran an errand, Jeremy wandered around the PX, and Sarah went to the beauty shop. After I got my $3 haircut, we went to the APO. They still haven’t fully recovered from the old APO burning down. The forms counter is a folding table on the sidewalk.

You stop at this table first and fill out your customs form. Then you proceed inside the warehouse to have your package inspected. After inspecting the contents, the clerk seals the package and affixes the customs form and any other required labels. Finally, you go to the counter, have your package weighed, and pay the post.

Gabe’s birthday package is on the way. For Josiah’s birthday back in November 2007, I bought him a wooden puzzle box. You have to figure out the secret to get it open. Inside the box, Josiah found a 10,000 Iraqi Dinar note. For Christmas, I bought Gabe his own puzzle box, because he liked Josiah’s so much. The trick to opening Gabe’s box is different than the trick for Josiah’s box. When Gabe finally got his box open, he discovered that it was empty. I guess that’s been on his mind since Christmas because in his email this week he wrote “was there meant to be anything in my box?”.

Today we took down all the Christmas decorations and hauled the tree to the curb. The tree still looked great. It was the nicest tree I’ve had in years. I love to go and cut down a tree for Christmas, but this year I decided that might not be the wisest idea. So, I bought one from the lot at the local nursery and was really happy with it. It had no spiders in it (An Australian decoration), and it had all it’s branches (Unheard of in Hawaii). We had a fun Christmas with my brother Mike, his wife Karin, and their children Jeremiah, Matthew and Madeline. Mike, thinking I ran my home like a military boot camp was surprised to experience game playing and candy eating at 2100. Life group habits are difficult to break. Christmas Eve is always my favorite part of Christmas. I was in for a challenge this year because Jeremiah doesn’t like chocolate cake. So, Jesus’ birthday cake had to be a new flavor. I ended up making a peppermint candy cake and everyone voted it a thumbs up. We attended the Christmas Eve candlelight service in which the Elder (Lars said he always wanted to be referred to as The Elder) instructed us to watch our children so that they didn’t tilt their candles and drip wax on the floor. The minute Zeke’s candle was lit, I watched as he tilted it and dripped wax on the floor. It is inevitable if you tell a child not to drip wax on the floor, spill that glass, run into that wall, touch that stove that they will. It’s just a part of life with kids. On Christmas Eve, the kids all played songs on the piano that they had been practicing for Christmas. We had Carol of the Bells, Rudolf, Deck the Halls, Zeke’s version of Go Tell It on the Mountain, and Hot Cross Buns (which technically is a Good Friday/Easter song. In Australia, we learned that Hot Cross Buns are essential fare on Good Friday). I thought that Dale was going to put the sound bites of the kids playing piano on the blog, but after no one complimented him on his convenient playback option, he got a little miffed. For revealing that, he’ll probably torment me with my version of Holly Jolly Christmas. I could be a reject of American Idol with that one. On Christmas Eve, we also had the Christmas story production from all the children. The production experienced a few technical difficulties and Josiah showed shades of his father when others began to tell him how best to print something out on the computer. A word to the wise: Don’t ever try to give computer advice to my husband or son. In the end, the Christmas play was a smashing success complete with multiple costume changes and sheep that looked like dogs. Josiah was the first to wake up on Christmas morning. He got up at 0230 and woke me up ripping open the wrapping paper of the present on his bed. I told him to go back to sleep, because he had 4 1/2 more hours to wait. On Christmas Day, I most enjoyed the first annual Manry vs Meloch kickball game. It was a beautiful 50 degree day and if our neighbors were hoping for a quiet Christmas, they were sorely disappointed. On Boxing Day, we went to the Smithsonian’s Air and Space museum. I heard all the languages of the world spoken there. With the dollar’s value dropping, I guess the World decided that it was a good time to visit DC. Whenever I go into a major US city, I always wonder why a Happy Meal costs 3 dollars more than it does anywhere else in America. Well, Christmas is done and we’ve put away all the ornaments that Zeke didn’t manage to break. In 2006, when I was putting away the ornaments, I was wondering where I would be unwrapping them in 2007. Hopefully, in 2008 I’ll be unwrapping the ornaments right here in Stafford with Dale at my side or at least in the room grumbling under his breath about Christmas lights that don’t work.

Since I was so upset about not getting to put up lights this year, I decided to decorate my wall for Christmas. The first time Mugs visited my family in Natchitoches during Christmas, she was utterly amazed that Mama had decorated the bureau instead of a Christmas tree. So in true Manry tradition, here’s my Christmas wall:

Last night, some of us got together for a white elephant gift exchange. Sarah had printed out mistletoe and taped it to the ceiling, so you had to be careful where you stood. I was able to give everyone that came a homemade Christmas card from Gabe’s second grade class at Fredericksburg Christian Schools. In the picture above, notice all of the cards on the white paper. Each kid in Gabe’s class made me a Christmas card. They also made extra cards addressed to “Friend”.
CDR Charles Kliewer joined us for the festivities. He is a US Navy Submariner assigned to the US Army Corps of Engineers for a 6-month deployment to Iraq. He is here on FOB Marez attached to the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) as the liaison officer (LNO) for USACE. He’s still looking for his submarine! Here’s a shot of Charles and Rick unaware that mistletoe is lurking above.

This morning, I slept in until about 0800. After making some coffee and checking email, I just lazed about most of the morning. I got to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” on AFN. For lunch today, we decided to go to town. So we drove over to the DFAC on FOB Diamondback. The display wasn’t quite as extravagant as Thanksgiving, but they did have a giant Frosty appropriately covered in frosting. Santa Claus was also at the DFAC, so we had one of the DFAC workers take our picture with Santa and Frosty.

The DFAC worker liked it so much, that he asked me to take a picture of him and his buddy with Santa. The he had his buddy take a picture of the two of us with Santa. Next it was a picture of just his buddy with Santa. Then it was a picture of me and his buddy with Santa. Finally, it was a picture of just him with Santa. Here is picture number 2, me and the first DFAC worker.

For Christmas this year, I got a deluxe care package from Richard, including homemade peanut brittle. No one is allowed to tell Howard that I got homemade peanut brittle.  He never reads this blog, right? From Abby, I received the Grumpy ornament, and from Gabe I got silly putty. Zeke gave me a Santa Pez dispenser, while Josiah sent a coffee cup where you can design your own decoration. Mugs gave me a desktop bowling game and a stress-relief football to squeeze. It feels like Stretch Armstrong, if you remember that toy. I guess it feels like Stretch Armstrong even if you don’t remember that toy!

Merry Christmas from Mosul!

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