On the 4th Day of Christmas...

Christmas Eve brought a new kind of excitement for me. In years past, I'd gone to Julie's house for Christmas. This year there were four of us at my house. Imagine Santa's excitement! I think he went shopping early for stocking-stuffers, finding cool things for us girls, and manly things for Jer. On Christmas Eve, after everyone went to bed, I was the only witness to the secret dealings of Santa Claus. He filled the stockings and laid out gifts for each person. He sneakily put presents near the tree and a Blu-Ray player and movie 'neath the tv.
I was so delighted by what I'd seen. You see, I've never been privy to the affairs of The Jolly Man himself. I was so excited for everyone to wake up and see what they got, I couldn't sleep. It has been a long time since sleep has eluded me on Christmas Eve. It was like being a kid again.
I woke up several times through the night, each time looking at the clock wondering if it was time to wake people up yet. Finally, at 7am on Christmas Day, I called Mom and Dad. They are 9 hours behind me and were just saying goodbye to people after a Christmas Eve family get-together. I wished them a merry Christmas, talked to my cousin, Melanie, and my grandma on speakerphone.
I killed more time by taking a shower, but after that, I was quite insistent that people start waking up. While they each took showers, I prepared the Christmas (turkey)roast and vegetables in the crockpot.
When everyone was ready for the day, we took our annual Christmas photo, which is always taken before discovering what Santa brought.
We opened gifts and watched each other open gifts. We enjoyed our own excitement at our new treasures as well as at each others'. There were some fun surprises, and some that moved us to happy tears. What a wonderful Christmas!
We had our traditional Christmas brunch of hot chocolate, scrambled eggs and juice (I forgot to buy the turkey bacon!); this year brought a new culinary flair: eggnog waffles! All served on Christmas dishes, of course. Not many things in this world bring such a simple happiness as eating off of Christmas dishes!
Soon it was afternoon and friends were starting to show up. We have some good, close friends here that we consider part of our extended family. We did a gift exchange and ate Christmas dinner together. My neighbor also came since he had to come back from vacation early for work and he was alone.
We ate and talked and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves into the evening. The girls (5 of us) started playing different board games. The boys (3 of them) played their new Wii games. None of us paid much attention to the time. We were all having too much fun.
Then Todd called: he is the link to Matthew (currently serving an LDS mission). It was a 3-way call only. We were sad our parents couldn't join in (they got to talk to Matt afterward) because it (the phone company? available technology?) wouldn't allow 4-way. We had such a fun time talking to him! Julie, Emily and I went upstairs and lay on my bed with the speaker phone on. We laughed a lot. It was so nice to hear Matt's voice. It was nice to hear from Todd too.
When the phone call was over, we continued playing more games into the night. It was a happy, wonderful Christmas.

On the 3rd day of Christmas...

I've debated whether or not I should post this part, but I've decided to post it as a record for myself (since this is the only journal I keep now). I don't seek recognition.
Several months ago, my brother, Matthew, encouraged me (in the family letter) to be more thankful. I found a way for me to feel more thankful and express that through daily blogging. Soon after, he challenged me to be more charitable.
I believe Matt to be much wiser than his years. I think his spirit is much older than mine and older than many on earth. I thought about this challenge a lot. One day the thought came to me: I'd like to give to an orphanage. I didn't know of any around here and a search online yielded no results. I thought about it for a couple more days. Then one day I saw my German neighbor outside with her husband (who speaks English--the subject matter is more difficult than my limited German would allow). I went across the street thinking it was a great opportunity to ask them if they knew of any orphanages in the vicinity. They are such kind people and she told me she would look into it and let me know.
A week later she told me she'd contacted a priest/minister/reverend/pastor at a local church. He knew of a family who was really poor and in need. This family includes grandparents, children and grandchildren living in a small farmhouse. They are often transient, trying to make money wherever they can.
My neighbor also decided to help. Her family collected coats, shoes and other clothing.
So, Christmas Eve started out with Emily and me going on a shopping trip to the commissary. Julie stayed behind to sit on the phone with the airlines trying to find their luggage. Jer slept in.
The four of us met up with my neighbors and followed them to the church to pick up the pastor, then we all went to the farmhouse.
It was an awesome way to start Christmas.

We came back home hoping Julie's and Emily's luggage would be on the doorstep, but it wasn't. We left a note to leave the bags there just in case they came while we were gone. Julie had been assured they would arrive that day.
We decided to take a trip up to Burg Nanstein in Landstuhl. While we were planning and Emily was wrapping presents, Julie thought she heard something outside. Their luggage came! The couriers didn't ring the doorbell. They dropped the bags off on the doorstep and left (the note was still on the door). Hallelujah! It had been 4 days since they'd seen their luggage. It was a Christmas miracle!
Julie and Emily changed their well-worn clothes and we all headed up to the castle. It was the foggiest day I've seen here, and quite cold, but a lot of fun! We first stopped to take a picture with the castle, then with the welcoming snowman perched on the patio of a castle-friendly pub. We had a fun time goofing off and wandering the castle grounds. The trees had shed their leaves and the ground was cold and hard, but it was not eerie. The fog brought with it a sense of peace.
Everything closes on Christmas Eve in Germany. It was weird to drive through the deserted heart of Landstuhl.
Back home we put on Christmas music and I got started in the kitchen. A couple of weeks before Christmas I decided I wanted to start a new Scheuffele tradition--something that is uniquely ours now that we live so far away from family. I decided I will make wassail punch every Christmas Eve. I'd looked at many recipes online until I found one that seemed perfect.
Oh, the wonderful aroma escaping from the crock pot lid! It was heavenly!
I also wanted to make divinity. The taste is in the name. It is the best candy! Emily said she didn't like divinity, but she kept eating it! Julie too!
We ate 15 bean soup for dinner on my Christmas dishes and drank wassail punch. Scrumptious!
It was a wonderful, happiness-filled day!

Interruption

I need to write down my thoughts and feelings; writing can be therapeutic for me. Much has happened and I haven't had the mental energy to finish blogging about my whirlwind Christmas vacation with my sisters. I do intend to blog about it still.
Right before Christmas, the day my sisters arrived, I got a call from Jer (while we girls were out exploring the city of Trier) that he was going to deploy. It was really sudden. The way it normally works is that there is a cycle each airman is assigned to. The cycles last for 6 months (actual deployment time) and come up every 18 months. Jer was supposed to deploy in January 2009, but because we had orders to Germany already, those trumped the deployment and he didn't have to go.
When we got here, he was assigned to the cycle that will leave sometime around Dec. 2010.
I need to back up a little bit before continuing.
Before we got orders, while still in VA, I applied and was accepted into nursing school. I was 2/3 done with my first term of classes when we got the orders for Germany. Understand, nursing school has been a dream of mine for many, many years. It was finally a reality after years of ill health or financial status preventing it. I was torn and cried several times over the ripping decision I had to make to stay behind for a year and finish school, or drop out of school and come to our dream destination: Germany.
I sought advice from many people. It was only after contemplating advice from a school counselor that I was able to come to a decision. I think her advice was intended to convince me to stay behind in school. She told me that there were many factors to consider when choosing, but as women, we often forget that we are also just as important as anyone else. Many times women put others ahead of themselves. She told me to think of myself and what was best for me, as a woman.
I thought about it a lot, actually. And I decided that what I really wanted, as a woman, was to be together with my husband. We are just two people, but he is my family. Family has always been important to me.
I decided to come to Germany. And while I always knew when January 2010 (the would-have-been RN school completion month) came around, the decision would haunt me, I don't regret coming.
There are no nursing schools here. I have taken to being a full-time housewife.
Jer understands how agonizing it was for me to decide to give up school. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life. I tried to go to school here over the summer, but I think the stress of moving so many times during the year, then adjusting to a different culture caused my body to be rundown. I just didn't feel well and had to drop the class. I don't want to sound like a complainer (I really don't like to perpetually complain in written form for everyone to read), but unfortunately, I'm going to sound like one for the remainder of this paragraph. That wasn't the first time that's happened. Or the second. Many, many times I've enrolled and had to drop due to health problems. Life isn't fair, and especially not to me. What I have, I have to work really hard for. Things don't come easily to me. They never have.
Our plan has been that when Jer deploys at the end of 2010, I would go back to the States and attend an accelerated nursing program. We would be separated anyway, and that seemed the logical way for me to get my nursing schooling done.
All that changed with that phone call.
Jer was slotted to go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I decided not to worry about things until after Julie and Emily left. And our travels did a good job of distracting me. We had a wonderful time.
We have done a lot of research into a school here. They offer face-to-face classes as well as online. I have done exhaustive research into the post-9/11 GI bill that can be transferred to spouses and MyCAA--a generous scholarship available to active-duty military spouses.
Last night we finally figured out my schooling plan (and how to pay for it) for while Jer was deployed. I've been planning a trip back to the States to see my family. Jer has been busy with pre-deployment activities on base such as qualifying (shooting guns), medical appointments, training classes, etc.
The phone rang again this morning. Jer was calling to tell me they'd canceled his deployment and had given the slot to someone in the Guard. I was speechless. This was good news, right? It felt weird. If an outsider were observing us, he would see nothing of note. But two life-changing events have happened in the space of a few weeks, and I just don't know how to react.
Ultimately, we are both glad he's not going. We are re-planning life again.
I will go to school here still. I will take all the pre-nursing courses needed so that when he does deploy, I will have more options of nursing schools available to me. This is, I think, something really good that has come from all of this. And I'm excited to go.
I feel good about all the decisions that have been made between me and Jer. I think Odd Thomas was wise when he said, "Optimism is a result of the fact that you are happy in the world..." (Dean Koontz). And I am happy.