When I pulled up the ole blog this morning, with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee by my side and a sense of free time now that all of the Christmas orders have been shipped, I gasped....have I not written anything since December 9th?? Did NaBloPoMo teach me nothing? Have I fallen back into a ragged routine of writing whenever there is free time or rain in the forecast?

Not good.

As most Americans will be making silent promises of getting fit and healthy in 2012, I must promise to stick to a regular posting schedule. If only because writing often keeps me from feeling a literal sense of constipation. And because I can...because I'm free...thank you for the reminder, Rick Perry cartoons.

In addition to pushing over 50 custom orders out the door since Thanksgiving, I've also completed the decorating process (made a little easier this year by the fact that the tree never left the living room last year), finished Christmas shopping (handmade and small business gifts were a giant success....more on that after all of the gifts have been distributed), baked and ate 2 batches of sugar cookies (and learned that 2 fully decorated sugar cookies at 10 PM is a spectacularly bad idea), and spent the day in Savannah with my sister the queen, her daughters Repunzerella and Sleeping Booty, my brother-in-law The King of Scots, and his parents.

I've also crossed a few things off of the 101 list, made a couple of Pinterest crafts/recipes, and almost finished The Hunger Games series.

I've been busy.

But so has everyone else.

Tami purchased the first Wings for Our Troops plane ticket for a Marine and his wife to go home before deployment. She is, apparently, in San Diego now presenting them with it and I'm trying to wait patiently for a blog post or pictures...or both. If you've purchased a RED Friday item and asked that your 50% be donated to Wings for Our Troops, then YOU are a part of this and you should be proud.

Shana's daddy-o has been released from the hospital and into the care of rehab facility. It's a relief and a giant step forward to getting him home for Christmas.

We are officially out of Iraq. I realize I should have addressed this when it first happened last weekend, but, honestly, I wasn't sure what to say. Almost exactly a month after Neal's boots hit American soil, the rest of our Soldiers are crossing over into Kuwait...for better or worse. Neal and the 352 spent 10 months preparing for that moment. They were actively involved in shutting down bases and transporting equipment and supplies out of the country. Their work in Balad was key to making sure that we were ready to leave by the end of the month. And yet, just as it seemed like a publicity stunt manufactured by the media when Stryker Force left Iraq a year ago, it still doesn't feel final. I know there are American troops left behind in Iraq, tasked with manning the embassies and the state department so saying that there are no troops left is unfair to the ones that are left. Just like the media blasting the end of combat troops in Iraq while Neal was packing his duffles to go to Iraq. For me, there is no closure in lowering the flag that flew over Baghdad. It's designed to make the American people feel warm and fuzzy and send poll numbers sky high. I understand the need...I just don't buy into it.

And on a completely unrelated note...I've spent almost 2 weeks thinking that tomorrow was Christmas Eve.

Until yesterday.

It's like I've been gifted with an extra day in the week and it's a little slice of awesome.

Lastly, I'll leave you with quote from one of last Sunday's politishows.
Michelle Bachman: I am a serious candidate for the presidency.

Um...honey...when you are a serious candidate for the presidency, you generally don't have to say I am a serious candidate for the presidency.

That is all.