Christmas, New Years, Student Teaching and Graduation

It's only taken me 3 weeks to finally get back with news but I did make it! As I said in the last post, Ciara finally made it home and we went over to see her on Christmas Eve. It was a glorious reunion! We spent some time just talking and starting to catch up but we barely made a dent. Most of it will have to wait till March when we can all be together again but we plan to share pictures, videos, and stories. Here is the picture I had been waiting to take for over a year!



After visiting Ciara, we spent the evening at Abram's parents where I got to participate in my first Christmas Eve with the Joslins. Even though it's the third Christmas I've known them, it was the first time I've participated in those festivities. I liked it! Abram was getting pretty anxious to find out what his Christmas present was and somehow talked me into doing Christmas the European way. Maybe it was the fact that he was only home for 2 weeks and I wanted us to have a good time that I said yes. So when we got home I let him open his present that evening. Here's one of my trees (we had another in another room) and Abram anxiously opening:





And the gift is......



All 11 Star Trek movies! I knew I would regret it probably some day but so far I'm good. :) We watched the first one a few days later and I actually liked it. Now I need to watch 2-6 again. :)

Christmas Day we went back and forth between both of our parents' houses. We started off at the Joslins for present opening. Since they had a 7-year-old there we couldn't start too late and my family always starts really late. So after some fun over there, we went to the Benitez house for breakfast and present opening. That was fun too and about the time we finished with that, we were back to the Joslins to talk with Abram's brother, Joseph, who is in the Philippines. After a little time doing that, we came right back to my parent's for dinner and then talking with my brother, Daniel, who is in Canada. He gets back in just a few weeks from now and celebrated his 21st birthday today. It was a busy but fun Christmas!

New Years was similar to Christmas. We spent New Years Eve with my family (and Ciara) playing games, drinking cider and having fun. Then we had the annual Joslin New Years Day dinner the next day. I decided after the holidays that having two families is more fun then I ever expected!

I started my student teaching the first week of January on Tuesday after shipping Abram back off to the base on Monday. I was thrown into teaching pretty quickly and it was so fun! I felt ready to go for it and my mentor teacher thought I was ready so she let me go for it. I had made a connection with so many kids in those first four days that I hope it's still there when I return this week.

I took this past week off from student teaching to go to Missouri for Abram's basic training graduation. His parents and I went together and had a blast! We flew out on Monday night, arriving in St Louis just before midnight. We were able to get into the USO at the airport with my military ID so we went there and spent the night on recliners. Not our best night's sleep but it was free, warm, and convenient so we appreciated it.

Tuesday morning we took off in our rental and headed to St. Robert, MO. It had snowed all day Monday and all night so it was pretty wet out there but we made it just fine! When we arrived at our destination that afternoon we just took things easy and went to bed early since we needed to catch up on our sleep. Wednesday was family day, but really it was 4 hours in the afternoon and by the time we got out of there late and had to get him back early, we had just over 3 hours together. But it was fun and SO good to see Abram. He looked so cute in his ACUs and Eyepro.



We went to the museums on base, had lunch, and he showed us some training sites on base. It was fun! Thursday was the big graduation. We were up and out the door early and it was worth it. Here is at the graduation in his seat:



He looks so good in his dress blues! And lucky for me, he had to stay in them all day. :) We didn't do much that day but sit around at the hotel and relax because there's not much to do in rural Missouri in January. But the time was SO nice. Here's a few more pictures from the day:








It was a great trip and we finished it off with a stop by the St. Louis Temple on our way back to the airport on Friday. Unfortunately, we had to leave Abram behind at Ft. Leonard Wood to start his advanced training this week in horizontal construction in the Corps of Engineers. The Temple there is beautiful and easy to find!




And that is what has been going on the last few weeks! If you're still reading either you really care about what's been going on with us, or you like to waste time on the computer like me! ;)