Neverending Weekend

I think that best describes the past week. Mike took some extra time off work, so everyday felt like a Saturday; I had to remind myself each day when I had to cook our yummy Thanksgiving meal. Speaking of, this was my fourth attempt at a Thanksgiving dinner and I have to say, I definitely am improving with my experience. At this rate, by the time I'm a grandmother, I should be able to rival my own grandmother's spread. I was completely and udderly spoiled to have my gramma's yummy Thanksgiving meal to look forward to for 21 years. I definitely would have preferred to have it longer, but working as a restaurant manager that decides to stay open on Thanksgiving as a last ditch effort to avoid, unsuccessfully, bankruptcy and closure of all it's restaurants robbed me of a few Thanksgiving while still in reasonable driving distance to her home (can ya' tell I'm still a little bitter?) But, I guess there comes a time in every woman's lifetime when she has to decide if she's man enough to step up to the challenge, or willing to drive 40+ hours round trip in a four-day weekend just to enjoy some of that good 'ol fashioned comfort food. Obviously I opted to step up and attempt to fill the gigantic shoes (figuratively) of my gramma's traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.
It was a bitter sweet time for us, knowing that we won't be together next year, feeling pressure to make this "just right" and balancing good, quality family time with all the day to day happenings of being parents of two beautiful, smart, sweet and semi-destructive (when in play mode) little girls.
On Friday, we had our Christmas celebration. We have decided not to factor Santa Claus into our celebrations, explaining him as more of a mascot of sorts, but prefer to keep Christmas about Christ and our family. I am still unsure of the best way to really explain Christmas to Ivie (I'm definitely open to any suggestions) but tried the very simple, "God loves us and wanted to give us Jesus as a gift. Christmas is Jesus' birthday and we celebrate by giving gifts to our friends and family". She knows her birthday is in December and just doesn't seem to grasp others can have birthdays in December too. So, I just don't know.
For now, we're just doing what we can to get through until Mike's quickly approaching departure. I feel like I am at an emotional stand still; I know this day is coming, but since it's not here, I just cannot deal with it. I don't know if that's good or bad, but that's how I'm dealing at this point. There really isn't too much to say to each either. We've both been through this and we're just ready for it begin. I'm sure that sounds completely weird, but we're living under such a "cloud" right now, that we both need to move forward, and only after his departure can we have our reunion! But, we'll see how things go once Deployment day arrives. We've had the dreaded "what if" talk, that's never fun, but I need him to know how I plan on dealing with things if we were put into that situation; I need him to know we'll be okay. Aside from that, we just don't have much more to say that hasn't already been said.
We're looking forward to a nice week, probably another short one. We're going to be celebrating Ivie's birthday this week, so that should be fun for her having a birthday this week and next week and everyday that a birthday package arrives between now and then! This month should be pretty eventful for us, so I have a lot to look forward to to help get through all this craziness.
Please keep us in your prayers and I'll keep in touch!