The few pictures I took on Christmas...

Although we claimed this would be "THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVERRRRRRR!!" we kinda failed. Don't get me wrong, this Christmas was pretty much perfect for us this year as far as Christmases without friends or family goes. But it wasn't, by any means, the best or even one of the best that we've had.

Swaroski Crystal Mickey necklace! By far, my favourite gift from Dustin.

But it was nice. We opened presents, snuggled and watched Christmas movies. Then fell asleep numerous times during the movies that we originally were so excited to watch. Then I gathered up the strength to make a mini-feast for Dustin and I. Dustin actually helped me in the kitchen which was awesome because I almost said, "'eff it! I'm too tired and lazy to cook!". I'm glad we did though because everything was delicious. I made this awesome corn casserole, my sweet potatos, ham, and cream cheese mashed potatos (Mommy O'Brien's recipe :)). Then we ate waaaay too much and got sleepy again.

That's when my mom called. lol. I was able to hear everyone open their presents from us and their excited reactions. That was probably the highlight of the day for me. I'm glad I'm so good at buying people gifts. Just hearing the younger kids laughing with excitement over the things I got them, makes paying the thousands of dollars in shipping totally worth it. OK, I exagerated just a tad. But shipping was a buttload. Next year I'm just ordering everything from amazon.uk.com. Or sending money and gift cards.

Later on we called Dustin's family hoping to get our revenge on them for calling us a bunch of times starting at 7am that morning. I was furious because I had worked until 230am the night before and I just hate being woken up in general because I suck at sleeping anyways. I almost cried when my phone rang the second time an hour later and asked Dustin why his mom was being such a meany head and how come she didn't like us anymore. I tend to get dramatic when I'm cranky. I also tried to convince him to "disown her". You know, normal early morning tantrum talk. Merry Christmas!

So we planned to call Dustin's mom and wake her up super early like she did to us. We called when it was 530am her time, thinking she would be dead asleep and hopefully as cranky as I was when we's scream festive greetings into her ear. Surprisingly to us, she answered the phone and actually seemed wide awake. Let me tell you...that was a HUGE disappointment. But never fear, we will get our revenge some day! Just you wait and see. But, we did end up talking to her and the rest of the family for pretty much the rest of the night. We were able to listen to them open up their presents from us as well and I think we did a pretty damn good job. Unless, everyone's just really amazing actors.

So, it was a lazy day that started off with some rage but I was quite content by the time we got to bed. There are so many things that made this year better than last year. List time!

1) We were in an actual home with all our things

2) We were able to decorate and even had two trees this year!

3) Dustin was able to have his cinnamon bun Christmas breakfast tradition

4) I was able to bake cookies and share them with people at work

5) I was able to bake and make Christmas dinner!

6) Since we have cable, we were able to watch all the Christmas shows and movies that we love

7) We had phones to call family! That's the most important of course!

8) We have a dog to spoil with his own stocking

9) I wasn't suffering from a crazy allergy attack

10) We have so much to look forward to in the new year :)

Apollo even enjoys the holidays!

I swear he does. Just ignore the depressed look on his face. He always looks like that. It doesn't mean anything.

OK. I saw these antlers at the BX and just HAD to get them to make Apollo wear. I didn't know if he would hate them or not but I didn't care. This wasn't for him. It was for me and my own squealing amusement.

Turns out, he really really hates these things on his head. I also don't think the bells help. He tries to take it off of him before I even get it on his fluffy little head. But seriously, how cute does he look?? He should be a dog model, I swear. Dustin held him up long enough for me to get his attention and snap a few shots. He was completely miserable. And yes, I have put the antlers on him since this. I'm trying to convince/force him to embrace them.

Hey, I'm just trying to spread holiday cheer or whatever.

Apollo got his hair did!

Kinda. Although, you can't tell from these pictures, Dustin hacked off a lot of his fur with the scissors and buzzer thingy. Poor Apollo wasn't happy about it and you can totally tell that he got an at home haircut from his idiot parents.

Isn't it a lovely love affair?

Dustin has been having a secret love affair with my camera lately. I don't know what started it. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention to him. Maybe he just needs his own camera. Or MAYBE he can have my camera since he likes it so much and I can get a brand spanking new one! I like this idea.

But anywho, I realized just how many pictures he had taken over the days when I caught him trying to take a candid shot of me as I put together his lunch for him. I snatched the camera away and deleted the pictures ( yes plural! I really need to start being aware of my surroundings) of me. That's when I saw that there were 17 pictures that I had nothing to do with. I went through them and decided that I might as well post them.

So here they are.

Even Apollo was in on this affair and he didn't even have the nerve to let me know! We're not on speaking terms right now.

I guess I got Dustin into taking pictures of food. But unlike him, I don't wanna take pictures of every single thing I make. Just the things that I'm especially proud of or think are super cute or pretty. And I don't take pictures of recipes.

But maybe Dustin was just really proud of this chicken pot pie that I let him help me with. He DID do the crust and that's the first time he's ever worked with any kind of pastry. He did a good job and it was really yummy. I guess I'll let this one go.

See his reflection? I think it's cute. And the way he positioned the spoon makes me wanna pinch his cheeks.

This picture is adorable and completely shows what goes on every friggin' day. If we're in the kitchen, Apollo is right there waiting for us to feed him something. And he always looks so annoyingly cute doing it too.

Yogurt marmalade cake. Dustin had nothing to do with this creation but he wanted to take pictures of it anyway. The only reason I didn't was because I just wanted it in my face. It took longer than it was supposed to in the oven and I was a grumpy mess when it was finally done. I just wanted to grumble and complain while I ate it.

He made me pose with the knife and tried to get me in the shot but I wouldn't allow it. I was Sunday morning! And everyone knows that Sundays mean Tara doesn't get dressed, stick in contacts, do her hair, or wear makeup! Whats that? You didn't know that? Well...now you do. I'm quite sure I had no pants on at this time.

Apollo hates baths

He looks like he's lost about 5 pounds when he's wet. It's pretty cute. Even though he was shaking in fear the whole time.

Adventures with Apollo!

This last week, Apollo and I have been taking very long walks in the hopes of discovering something new. My main goal was to see how far away stores are from our house. We live in a military housing community right next to Kadena Air Base. The community has houses, 2 lame playgrounds, and a bridge that goes straight onto Kadena. The parts of Kadena we're close to basically have nothing. The daycare, kennels, and the gas station/shopette are within walking distance but we weren't interested in going to any of those places. We wanted to explore off base. The first day we walked for about an hour and got to a forest. Then we went home. The last thing I need is a snake bite that'll get me sent off the island.

But the second day we walked in a different direction and had a very nice walk indeed. But once we go to some stores we turned around. It took about an hour and we were very tired and humid. But we (meaning just Tara) took some pictures along the way.

Here's lovely Apollo pulling the crap outta my arm.

There are many many cute little gardens on Okinawa. Here's one we saw with some coconut trees.

Tiny kitten!

Dalmation duck.

Here's someone's garden. He was actually over to the far left but he didn't notice me.

You can't read it but this was just on the side of the road randomly and it told a story about this ginormous snake that would destroy crops and such unless the villagers sacrificed a young girl to it. I read it and announced to nobody, "I KNEW IT! I knew there were virgin sacrifices somewhere on the island!" Okinawa just gives off that vibe to me. *shrug*

Here's the trail that supposedly leads to the pond where the giant snake lives. Apollo and I started to go down but then I remembered that I don't like nature and I didn't wanna spend the rest of the day picking ticks off of Apollo.

One of the hundreds (maybe thousands. I have no idea) of shrine-like cemetarys they have here. I like them. I think there's something very peaceful about them.

Here's some info for you guys. And look! There's me!

Shisa! And Apollo trying to pull me away from taking pictures. He wasn't too happy with me at this point.

Can you tell I really love the gardens here?? I want one.

This is where we rested for about a minute.

Hooray! A store! I don't know what it was but we got there and we were proud.

Apollo's note: What's all this "we" stuff??