The 2022 Holiday Season was a busy one, particularly for the CO of the Shipyard--he gets invited to a lot of stuff. And, of course, we wanted to celebrate with his work people with get-togethers. So, we divided and conquered.
We decided to host the military officers for a pre-Thanksgiving potluck. We made the turkey, ham, gravy, and mashed potatoes. Everyone else brought their favorite side dishes or desserts. We had 40+ people come, share in some camaraderie, and ate ourselves silly.
Jip and I attended a holiday gathering cohosted by a couple of the regional admirals the first weekend in December. That same weekend, Jip and the kids went out on a boat to be one of several groups, including Santa, to greet kids with special needs. The boat they went out on rivaled Grandma Downey with the number of snowmen aboard.
The next weekend, we were one of five houses on the base to host a progressive dinner for the base residents. The kids hung out upstairs, for the most part, for the 45 minutes or so that we were here. The food was delicious, and thankfully for me, there were not many leftovers.
And the weekend after that, we packed up and began our trek to Colorado for holidays with the family. It was a pleasant enough drive there, except for the Apple Maps misdirection onto an icy dirt road that was nearly the scene of a certain Highlander meeting its end. But, Jip's superior driving skills and a little bit of luck kept us from falling off a cliff, crashing into the side of a hill, or even bending our rack on the back.
On the way there, we did detour for a little while to the Hagerman Fossil Beds. We talked to a park ranger there who then directed us to where we we could still see the tracks from the wagons on the Oregon Trail. We drove a few extra miles to see those tracks. Jip and I thought that was pretty awesome. The kids had no concept how amazing it was and they certainly didn't get all of our references to the DOS-based Oregon Trail game we played in elementary school on the Apple IIc or Apple IIe. Oh, well.
I wouldn't say the drive back to Washington was uneventful, as that is when the hybrid battery announced with all of the car's warning lights that it was starting to fail. But, we made it back with minimal weather interruptions. The kids had a few days of recovery before going back to school, then we jumped back into our routine.
We had one last holiday celebration, and that was with the shipyard's civilian leadership. They joined us at our home the second full weekend in January to welcome in the new year. We made a variety of soups and then everyone brought sides and desserts. It was a very pleasant afternoon where there was very little discussion of the office and a lot of discussion about the Seahawks, who were playing during the soiree. The Seahawks lost, but I think people still had a great time! Leftover desserts got to be sent to the watch office so those military officers that have to spend the night at the shipyard would have snacks. And, thankfully, there were very few other leftovers.
Now it is time to hunker down and finish out this command tour, this school year, this gymnastics season, and everything else strong. Until next time, cheers!
