Majorly missing our Major.

Working retail does not allow one to take time off for the holiday season. (It also kills every happy, sentimental, warm feeling you ever had about the holidays. But I digress.) Since I couldn't go home for Christmas, my in-laws were nice enough to drive 4,000 miles to spend it with me (and the grandkitty!) in SoCal. (After all, it's going to be sunny and almost 70 degrees. White Christmas, what?) I still have to work seven out of the ten days they are here, but it's nice to come home to a set of parents who are happy to see me, even if they're not (technically) my own. (Also nice? Someone to cook a dinner for me that did not first come from the freezer.) We miss having "our boy" with us, but look forward to next year when we can all be together again. I have been blessed with wonderful in-laws who raised a wonderful son* for me to marry. And for that? Thankful indeed.

A Lt Colonel and his ladies, out for a Christmas dinner.

*Just an FYI: they raised two wonderful sons. I married the Marine one. (...Obviously.)