HO HO Hold on a minute…..it’s Christmas already?? It sure doesn’t feel like Christmas. Might be the lack decorations around here. Though my room is styling thanks to two of my sister’s sending me a package last week. Some of the guys somehow tracked down an actual Christmas tree, I have no idea where they found it, but they put it up in the recreation building, made some ornaments and put some lights up. I’d say it might be the best Christmas tre I’ve ever seen. So unexpected, and such a nice reminder of home.
We had a cookout tonight with all the guys, well and the 1 girl….imagine being the only woman here in a camp with 4-5 dozen men! Talk about needing a thick skin. The guys somehow got their hands on a massive amount of steak and chicken. Rumor has it that the chicken was so fresh that they had been clucking merry Christmas to each other this morning…..I didn’t ask for details. Myself and 1 other guy did all the grilling, I think it took us at least an hour to finish cooking all of it. It was a fun day, a bunch of us grabbed some gloves and played catch for a bit, we took our lives into our own hands when letting some of the guys jump in with us, might have been the first time some of them have ever thrown a baseball, or at least it looked like it. We all gathered in the recreation building for food and after a bunch of the guys fired up the karaoke machine. That was my time to exit! It’s such a great group here, no one is better than anyone else, and that showed today when you looked around and saw managers doing dishes while the lower level guys hung out in the other room drinking beer- well non alcoholic beer. This may not be my chosen family, but they do a pretty good job of making each other feel welcome. And after all, nothing says Christmas quite like a guy from India dressed in a cheap Santa suit!
Last night my family called me from my mom’s house as they were all gathered for the traditional Christmas Eve gathering. For those who don’t know my family, we need our own zip code. 10 children, all married, and 24 grandkids that range in age all the way up to their late 20’s, so the crowd quite literally is still growing. Well they all paraded through my mom’s spare room where her computer is to say hello. I felt like the circus freak inside the computer! Although I bet the majority of them would tell you there is some truth in that! It was great though, made me feel like I was part of the night, even if I am in the middle of the Afghan desert.
Work has been a bear. I’m completely fried. Is it wrong to be thankful for Jesus’ birth because I got to sleep in? It seems like every day my workload grows, it’s almost like I am treading water and the waves keep getting bigger, but I maybe my legs are getting stronger too since I haven’t drowned yet. Tuesday night was another all nighter putting together a proposal. Went to bed at 6am, back to work around 7:30. Seeing the sun rise over the desert can be a gorgeous sight, but I recommend waking up early to see it, not catching it out of the corner of your eye as you leave the office. I basically was a zombie all day. Told my boss after dinner that I was going to bed early and not to look for me, but of course I found myself staring at the ceiling until past midnight! My body clock is so out of whack right now, I’m not sure if I have fallen asleep on the same day as I have woken up more than a few times. That can’t be healthy. But I guess you can just add that to the list along with lack of time to exercise, excessive coffee drinking, poor eating habits, stress….so ya poor sleep habits doesn’t mean too much. I have so much going on during my days right now that I can’t even process it. It’s catch up all day long. I usually mark emails that need me to either respond to or are an action item with that red flag you can check off….what does it mean when my entire inbox have red flags? I need to figure out a color coded flag system now.
A friend of mine put it perfectly in an email to me yesterday…this might simultaneously be the fasted year of my life and also the one that drags the most. It’s so true, time is flying, but is comes to a screeching stop when I get a chance to think about what I am missing back home. I can’t believe I wasn’t with the boys for xmas. Such a bummer. Hearing them jump out of bed and head for the stairs when they wake up as we jump out of bed to get to the bottom of the stairs in time to turn the lights on the tree and see their faces as they stumble down the stairs. Those of you with kids know exactly what I am talking about. I want to be there to help them put their stuff together, watch their brains go into overload as they try to play with 5 new things at the same time, and I even missed the stress of making sure that they don’t cross pollinate each other’s piles with the numerous small parts that inevitably will be lost within 24 hours. But what makes me missing all that worth it is that Jolie and the boys were able to travel north so spend time with both our families. That has been something that we haven’t done since moving to NC over 4 years ago. Either not having the vacation time, or not having it in the budget for holiday travel has made being home for the holidays difficult. So if me being over here has taken both those hurdles out of the equation, sign me up. Even though it tore my heart out to not be there with them, seeing them on skype all excited about being at grandma’s house and talking today about all the fun they had with their cousins made it all worth it.
Happy Holidays to everyone, I love and miss you all....well most of you.
No comments:
Post a Comment