The Invasion: Another Belated Holiday Post

My school district plans "weather days" into the calendar to compensate for time that might be lost to hurricanes during the year. These day are strategically placed around the holidays for dual purposes: for one, the days can be made up before state testing in the spring and, secondly, if there are no days lost to hurricanes we get an extended Winter Break. Since this year was lite on hurricanes in our area, we had the extended break! :o) All of this meant that I got out of school a week and a half before Christmas (I'm currently knocking on wood that next year we will be so lucky). That extra time came in handy because, as my mom said, "The Invasion" was set to begin on Christmas Eve (I mentioned before, our house is in-between my parents and my sister so to save on everyone's travel time this year we hosted Christmas).

We spent the week before Christmas having a non-stop cleaning marathon. The result was that our house was just as spotless as when we moved in almost four years ago. We were as ready as we could possibly be for The Invasion. My parents and Josh arrived on Christmas Eve (complete with an entire grocery store's worth of food packed into their truck - SCORE!). I gratefully turned my kitchen over to them for holiday cooking - have I mentioned that parents are the best? Sara and Dan arrived Christmas day (complete with an entire closet full of clothes for me to go through and "shop" - DOUBLE SCORE!).

Christmas was great. We visited, played games, and generally lounged around. It was awesome!! The day after Christmas we loaded up and headed to Fort Clinch for a little family excursion.

Shift Happens

Notes from Beyond

Tim went to college a few semesters before me. We affectionately refer to this time as his "BE" life (i.e. before Emily). During that time, he had three buddies that were like brothers to him - Charlie, Duane, and Damien. From the stories I've heard they had a lot of fun in those days. Eventually the group spread out and moved all over the state, but every once in a while when they were in town they'd meet up for a "boys' night". Each time they got together it was like no time had past, even as girlfriends (and later wives...) were added to the mix. A couple weeks ago, Charlie got married. It was a gorgeous ceremony right on the St. Johns River. Afterward Charlie and his bride sent a very nice thank you note that included a CD of pictures from our wedding.

Charlie, Tim, and Duane at our wedding.

As I was flipping through the pictures, I found one particular picture that might just be my new favorite. We were suppose to have the ceremony outside next to a gazebo. The wedding was held in July (i.e. the middle of hurricane season) and as it turns out there was a hurricane brewing across the state (which ended up dumping several feet of water under my parents house). Due to winds from this hurricane, the ceremony ended up being moved indoors. We still got pictures next to the gazebo (like the one that's been up for ages on the Kook Tales sidebar). They turned out beautifully, but in a couple of the shots you could see the wind blowing my skirt, crinoline and all, backwards. The picture below is now one of my favorites from the day. While most of our wedding pictures are reminders of how wonderfully perfect the day was, this one immediately took me back to that moment in time, imperfections and all.

Emily & Tim, July 2005

Move it or Lose it

Since I got out of school, I've been slowly cleaning the house and finishing up holiday preparations for our upcoming guests (our house happens to be in the middle of my sister and my parents so everyone is meeting up here for the holidays). Meanwhile, Bella took over my spot on the couch and actually had the audacity to give me dirty looks when I picked her up!!!

The Belated Thanksgiving Recap

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Partly for the simplicity of it. Sandwiched between Halloween & Christmas, it's refreshing to just get together with family and eat. Seriously, what's better than that? No glutton-fueled children begging for candy while running around in costumes that either have ten inches of fake muscle or way too much skin showing; no pressure to get just the right gift for everyone on your list. Just people you love and seriously delicious food. Sign me up!!

Tim & I went to visit his parents for Thanksgiving this year. We left all of our work behind, loaded the car and made the drive with surprisingly little traffic to compete with. Tim's dad is now working in Pennsylvania so the opportunities to get together with his parents have slimmed down a bit compared to the past few years. When we arrived we were pleasantly met with the aroma of Thanksgiving dinner in the air. We had a great time catching up and enjoyed more belly-laughs than we've had in a while.
The day after thanksgiving, we ventured down the the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. Tim was in HEAVEN! The museum is almost 300,000 square feet and there are airplanes in every direction... he literally didn't know which way to turn!

The family shot :o)
This plane, an A-7 Corsair II, is the plane Tim's dad wanted to fly in the Navy and is also the namesake of Tim's favorite plane, the F4U Corsair.

Checking out the exhibit on the USS Enterprise.

That's a Corsair in the background, Tim's absolute favorite airplane.

There was also one the floor... that he could touch!

We have about 15 variations of photos with Tim and this plane.
He talks about its curves like it's a woman.

Tim & his dad in front of a F-4 Phantom II,
another one of Tim's all-time favorite aircraft.

It may have been at this point in the day when Tim turned to me and said, "You must really love me to put up with airplanes all day." He then promised that I could pick out the next five Netflix movies. Score!

Tim's dad standing with a T-34, the same kind of plane that
he flew while he was in flight school in Pensacola.

Tim with his mom :o)

I crawled into the cockpit of this A-7 and it's a
wonder that I ever got out! They're tiny!!

This picture was taken in the Cubi Bar Cafe. It was originally from an Officer's Club located in the Philippines and was the actual bar on a base that Tim's dad visited with his Navy buddies. When the base closed down they tore it apart, shipped all the memorabilia to the US, and rebuilt it in the museum. They have a ton of squadron plaques that have pilots names and call-signs, including a pilot whose last name was Swift with a call-sign of "Not So".

Tim with a F4F Wildcat, the museum has three of them.
Tim really loves these classic WWII warbirds.

I jumped into the shot too!

Tim & his dad standing in front of the A-4 Skyhawk Blue Angels. There's one of these at a rest stop on I-10 that we pass all the time and Tim has told me the name so many times that I've memorized it.

For this photo, I was instructed to get the apple, the tiger, and the sharks mouth nose art in the frame. Tim tells me this is from one of the most famous and recognizable airplanes in the world, it's a P-40 that flew in the AVG Flying Tigers' Adam and Eves squadron in China.

This is us on what Tim calls the "business end" of the F-4. Tim tells me he could have spent the whole visit touching it. He insists on going back as soon as possible!