Before I get started on this one, just a heads up that it is totally not in chronological order. Also, I realize that I have done a fairly blah job of documenting things since we arrived here. For example, I completely forgot to take the camera to Clara Grace's kindergarten Christmas program, her Thanksgiving school party, and so on. Anyway...

Charlie is back doing aircraft rescue firefighting, and his shop sponsors a local orphanage. They do this Christmas party each year, along with various other activities and financial donations. I had my first "mass" cooking experience. We signed up for cooking a turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing. They then provided us with the items which turned out to be a 30lb turkey, four big cans of stove top stuffing (my first time making that), two large boxes of those mashed potatoes (another first for me) plus a bag of actual potatoes along with green beans. We came through, but that was a LOT of food. The Hollowell kitchen was a tense place about an hour before we were due to be there lol. This first picture shows Clara Grace and her new friend as they were the entire time...holding hands. They didn't let the fact they couldn't speak to one another get in the way at all.

The Zachster!

Even Santa made an appearance!

Clara and her friend

This was the H&HS Christmas bash. They had dinner, bouncers, cake walks, Santa and LOTS of raffle prizes. It was a huge affair although the pictures do not show that. Clara Grace ran into lots of her buddies from school, AWANA and scouts. It was held in the base gym which is why the floor is covered. This was a particularly hectic day as I recall CG had a make-up swim class right before plus I helped decorate the school stage for her Christmas performance in addition to running around making childcare arrangements for Zach and her since I accepted a teaching position the day before. Anyway, we did get a picture of the two kids sitting on Santa's lap but it was very blury. I'll have to scan the picture they gave us.

This particular bouncer is a sleigh with a massive blown-up Rudoph in front. I thought we might have to deflate it to get the kids off of it...it was a big hit. They had several other bouncers but for some reason I missed pics of them.

I do not know who these guys are, but it was fun to watch. I TRIED to get Charlie to suit up but he passed.

Here is a shot of Clara Grace with her swim instructor. She did awesome and although she has lots of room to improve, she is officially a swimmer above and under water!

Zach just hangs out while we watch her swim. He is such a good sport about it all.

I just think this is too cute as Zach tries to get his hands on the candy Clara Grace is eating. It is like he has eight arms sometimes!

This explains why he isn't wearing socks in the picture above. I have the hardest time keeping them on him. Sometimes when I go to get him out of the carseat, I find a similar scene.

ROOOOOOLLLLL Tide! And that's all I've got to say about that.

Although we ate dinner on Thanksgiving at Charlie's workplace, the day after I cooked a dinner for us to eat at home. Clara Grace pitched in the night before to help me with the pumpkin pie. She certainly did a number on the crust, but it was definitely tasty.

These are a few pictures taken of the Thanksgiving dinner at crash crew. This meal was mainly provided by KFC. That is right, we have a KFC on base (along with an A&W, Subway, Pizza Hut and Burger King but they are food court style) and for the holidays they offered Turkey dinners.

This guy loves taking a bath!