My boyfriend arrived home just before Christmas with a huge to-do list and a big ball of stress riding on his shoulders.  His main priority was signing another six month contract to stay in the Navy while finishing out Navy Seal training so that once July comes he can sign on for another five years (he’s already been in almost nine).  He was stressing because when he first left for training back in March, they gave him a ninety thousand dollar signing bonus, but now after completing his first six months of Seal training they wanted to (without him knowing) drop it down to around fifty thousand.  When it comes to money, my boyfriend keeps his eyes out and open.  He made sure that his new six month contract included the previous ninety thousand signing bonus, signed the new contract and was relieved by one less stress.  The next major thing he needed to take care of were two different teeth whitening companies that he had gotten a trial for and they charged his credit card a hundred dollars a month, EACH for a small stick of teeth whitener.  He could have gone to the dentist, had a much better teeth whitener and done professionally for less than what they ended up charging him for all the whitening (they came in while he was off to San Clemente island where he had no communication).  He finally convinced both companies to pay him back mostly what they charged, which was a total charge of about four hundred and fifty dollars.  They said they would give him about three hundred of that money back; another stress taken off his back (mostly).  The last stress that was weighing him down was trying to get all of his Christmas shopping in within a day or two.  Luckily, I had already done most of the shopping for his and my family, so he didn’t have much to worry about. 

His mom decided to fly down from Washington to California for Christmas this year and she arrived in to town on Wednesday evening.  She had expected to see her son (my boyfriend) sometime before Christmas but she wasn’t sure when and since she was staying with her daughter and she did not have a car of her own here, she had to follow a schedule of someone else.  Unfortunately because my boyfriend’s schedule and tasks were so great, we were unable to meet up with his mom or the rest of his family until our already planned Christmas day meet up in San Diego. 

I was super excited to head to San Diego since my mom and her husband had just bought a house down there, it is nice having my mom back in California with me again, I love having her so close.  My boyfriend and I arrived the morning of the 23^rd, since he had to take care of some errands in San Diego.  We helped my mom clean up, re-organize and of course finished up our shopping.  I put together all of our stockings (except mine) – it’s my favorite thing to do.   My mom and I had hand sewn my boyfriend a HUGE stocking for Christmas and filling it was a challenge, but fun.

Once Christmas arrived my boyfriend’s family came to San Diego and the rest of my family (that was in California) came over.  This was the first time that I actually helped my mom with the turkey (I’ve been meaning to learn how to cook one for years now).  I felt extremely lucky to be surrounded by so much family and so much love.  Dinner turned out amazing, we played a few games of ‘Fact or Crap’ afterwards (apparently I’m pretty damn good at that game) and then it was time to say goodbye.  Christmas was over, but the memories will last forever ;)  Happy holidays!