Fort Fisher, North Carolina

After Owen's first soccer game we drove down to Fort Fisher. We found a great café where we got some excellent fried chicken and hush puppies. They were having a family day or something like that and had their cannon up and running so we got to see it fire. Milton loved to see the "boom". Out of complete laziness, here is more about the Fort from Wikipedia. "Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865. The fort was located on one of Cape Fear River's two outlets to the Atlantic Ocean on what was then known as Federal Point or Confederate Point and today is known as Pleasure Island. The strength of Fort Fisher led to its being called the Southern Gibraltar and the "Malakoff Tower of the South". The battle of Fort Fisher was the most decisive battle of the Civil War fought in North Carolina."

Christmas at Camp Lejeune 2019

This being the first time we have lived in a house, we got to put up our own Christmas lights.  The lights had their own clip which we were able to slide onto the soffit trim nicely.  Both of the kids liked to help hold the spool while Damon went up on the ladder. We got our tree from the MCX which seems to be dropping a lot of needles, but Milton and Owen give the tree lots of attention.  Milton's favorite thing to do with the Christmas tree is to unscrew the big bulb lights and bring me the bulb.  He has unfortunately done something to the wiring so that strand is no longer with us.  Last year Milton would go after the mini ornaments on my mom's tree while we would go over there when Owen was in school.  I tried to get a bigger tree but Damon didn't want to.  He says I can get a bigger tree next year since we saw how much more space there was in our living room and in the van.  Christmas itself will be spent in Wyoming, but we will open our presents to each other here for Three Kinds Day on Jan 5 as per the Spanish tradition. 

December 2019

December was full of lots of events for us.  Most exciting was the second half spent in Wyoming.  My biggest accomplishment was my first concert performance since 2004.  Although I guess you could count in a few performances with the choir when I was in singles ward.  It had been a long time since a performance. I have really enjoyed getting back into playing and especially being with an orchestra as I love playing with the big groups.  We got to have a visit with Santa Claus at the Officers' Club on base that the kids loved.  Not many other kids were there so we got a lot of time with Santa.  I loved his belt buckle. That same night we went to see a performance of one of the Marine Corps bands that was very good.  Owen had a concert as well with all the combined kindergarten classes in his school.  The school admin was very organized and started everything on time which was greatly appreciated by the parents and younger siblings.  Milton's favorite thing to do right now is to eat movie theater popcorn.  He insists on holding the enormous bag and is not favorable to sharing.  Owen also did a week of robotics club that he had fun in, but would come very home very tired and a bit moody.  Owen also started his soccer at the beginning of the month that he has fun running around, but is easily distracted.  Damon doesn't like how it doesn't end until 12:30 so it kinda takes up the day from being able to go on any outings.  We probably won't do soccer another season.

Thanksgiving Week 2019 with Bonny

My mom came to visit us for Thanksgiving and stayed for the week. We visited Beaufort, New Bern, and the Battleship North Carolina. Thanksgiving dinner was at the Officers' Club on base where we rode our bikes over. My mom brought down her trike so we could all ride around to school, playground, or bowling alley. The dinner was really yummy and we will probably do it again next year. The most fun event was going to see a live-action play of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer in Raleigh. It was really cute and the kids had a ton of fun.