Merry Christmas (a belated one to those of you in Japan)!! Its great to be home. Hope you're enjoying the holiday with family and friends like I am. I've been home since Saturday night, mostly shopping and catching up on past issues of all my magazines. The only departure from that was Sunday night when we all got dressed up really pretty and headed out to the All-Academy Military Ball. Brook was in his formal dress uniform with a friend from the CG Academy on his arm as a date, I wore a former bridesmaid dress (thanks for Beth's good taste) and Mom & Dad looked stunning. I'll try posting pictures later.

Now that I'm over jet-lag and have figured out how to sleep in, Mom & Dad got me up at 6:30 for 8 am mass this morning. ;) Our "big goal" of the week has been to watch the first two Lord of the Rings movies so that we can go see the new one tonight. What a wonderful vacation!