Our 1st Christmas in Germany Army Style

Christmas Eve is when we always do our big cooking family dinner well this year we decided to invite the gang from Thanksgiving and a few others even though some of our friends didn't make it we had an awesome turn out and our Christmas eve was amazing..nothing better then spending the evening with great friends and our family...it's not a party unless Santa shows up...

A holiday get together is not complete with out video games according to the boys...yes that is more then one tv you see there I believe they had 3 tvs running on Christmas Eve honestly the techno gaming is not my thing so I am not sure what they were playing but they sure had fun lol

Love comes in all forms, all shapes and sizes...this is what Army love is about Avila, Maddie and Charlie all smiles. I can not tell you how much the girls love Pachenkos battle buddies these guys aren't friends they are our family...there is not anything I wouldn't do for them...

Friends, food, laughter these are the things memories are made of...those good times together where you share the small things that mean so much.. some of us are away from home for the first time..some of the boys are missing Christmas away from home for the first time so it was important to me that they had a place to be to have the home & family feel for the holiday...and I think we succeeded...families aren't always conventional, life isn't always how we planned but we roll with what we got..and what we have here is pretty special our post is a community we are family.

Our daughters see daddies battle buddies as big brothers yes...Charlie is really sharing her toy with Topete...

I was a little sad this holiday season Julianna is still back in Montana and honestly I have never been apart from any of my daughters on a holiday...except for when I was pregnant with the twins, on lock down in the hospital on bed rest but at least the girls were minutes away and Pachenko brought them to see me..but in this case Julianna is like 5000 plus miles away and thousands of dollars away.  I came to the realization that this is why I am so attached to the boys they are away from their moms & families so there moms can't take care of them and Julianna is so far away from us..so in my thinking I can take care of the boys the way I'd hope some one would take care of my daughters.. The photo above is Gilly and my babies Maddie felt sick so Gilly wrapped her up and held her so she still could be in the photo...

Girls getting ready to say good night to the boys picking out the perfect cookies for Santa Claus takes a minute or two though...then it was time for a big group cuddle hug with the boys and one last photo of the night for the girls 

A perfect ending to a wonderful holiday with family and friends...I hope everyone had the opportunity to spend there holidays with the ones they love..

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from our family to yours..