Christmas Day - November 28th - Italy

Hello dear friends.  I'm afraid I have been remiss in my postings.  This month is proving busier then I had expected and I have not been posting as often as I would like.  I want to share a little bit of my time in Italy with my son, my wonderful daughter in law and the three raviolis.  To see Kit Kat again is always a joy as she is so full of life and energy and  sparkle and shine.  She makes me laugh all of the time.  To have the opportunity to hold my new grandtwins was heartfelt.  To be blessed with one sweet angel is a gift like no other, but to have two in your arms is more than I can describe.  I already miss holding them and seeing them laugh and coo and demand their meals.  They are simply amazing. 

You are probably wondering why I have my title as Christmas Day, November 28th.  Well, that is the day we celebrated Christmas in Italy.  My son and his command were given their deployment orders for December 2nd during the Thanksgiving week and so Army families were celebrating Thanksgiving and then two days later, following up with Christmas.  To watch my son and his wife prepare for this day with such grace and perfunction was a struggle for me to keep back tears.  I did not want to show them tears because they are both remaining strong in front of the little ones.  Unless you are or know a military family well, you cannot imagine the emotion behind being told out of the blue, this is the day one of your loved ones will leave to go into harms way.  It hit me square between the eyes at that moment that as adults, we all leave for work...grumble about our day and the issues we encounter, complain about a commute if you have one and then wonder how we will get supper on the table because we are tired from the day. But there is one big difference between our day and a soldier's day....there is nobody waiting to shoot us or leave road side bombs for us to trip as part of our work day.  Kerry is a seasoned Army wife and handles this with grace, aploomb and a quiet dignity.  I admire her.  For this third deployment, she has prepared a large jar marked Daddy's Hugs and Kisses.  Kit Kat and her daddy, filled the jar with enough kisses for the length of the tour and each night before Kit Kat's day ends, she can take one or two out as kisses and hugs from daddy.  If she is missing daddy at anytime, she may also ask for one during the day.  Every time I look at this picture I can't hold back the tears.  Something so simple as a jar with Hersey's kisses in it becomes a powerful show of love and affection from a daddy far away.

 

Decorating the tree the day after Thanksgiving.  Kaitlyn was thrilled with all of the hustle and bustle of boxes from the attic, stringing lights and making ornaments.  I had my "bag of tricks" filled with craft items and she ended up making lots of ornaments for the tree.  Between the glue, the paper, the glitter and the paint, ornaments were made and it was a lot of fun.

The tree, stockings and a lit fireplace.  Home at its best.

KitKat reaching way under the tree for gifts on their Christmas morning.

Jason gave special pieces of jewelry to both Kerry and Kit Kat.  For Kerry, a bracelet with Italian type charms of all of his ribbons and badges along with deployment stars and awards for her.  So many for all that an Army wife does that she had two full bracelets of Swaroski crystals signifing deployments, moves, and his ribbons.

 Watching my son softly speak to his daughter as he put the necklace he picked out for around her neck left a lump in my throat.  He gently told her that the pendent she now wears shows everyone that she is a daughter of a soldier.  "A soldier."   Such simple words he uses as both he and she are so much more.  But I find this is how military men and women speak of their service.  There are no braggerts within.  They understand the duty they perform and so freely give to our nation, it is not about titles it is about the service.

I am a daughter of a soldier.

I was taken to supper at a local restaurant with amazing course after course of freshly made pastas, salads and a main course, strong Italian coffee and dessert.  (I felt like a bloated tick when we left.)  So much food and all so good.  Kit Kat knows the owners and their children and so she sat down and colored pictures with them until our meals arrived.   No one speaks English and Kaitlyn is becoming very fluent and carried on a non- stop conversation with the owner's daughters in Italian.   It was sweet to watch.

Can you believe that these are twins!  Yes, Connor may have weighed less then Kelsey when he was born but he has sure made up for lost time.  He is slowly becoming a linebacker.  Kelsey is such a sweet little thing and is light as a little feather.  Connor is so big compared to his sister.  Twins are such unique siblings. 

Lots of bottle washing every few hours.

Beautiful mommy feeding the twins.  Talk about multi-tasking and she looks so good at the same time.

Following feeding is playtime on the blankets.  They love to kick and coo until they fall asleep. 

Kerry took me to this marvelous Christmas garden and craft shop.  Fell in love with this gold lame bean bag and actually considered carrying it on the plane. I mean, how cool is a golden bean bag?

Connor looking around and thinking deep thoughts.

Kelsey says feed me again.

I'm wearing my Italian pre-school pink smock and am ready to go to school.  It was a wonderful visit and I can't wait to see them again in the spring.  Sea Witch