17 December.

For all of you out there who have asked, "do you have dates yet?", the answer now is yes. Yes we do. And they're sooner than we anticipated. Which is fine.

It's a little funny since I was just telling a friend yesterday that we were kind of looking forward to a calm Christmas here just before leaving, and since I had it in my head we could go to Singapore for Thanksgiving. Hmmm. How is it that I haven't learned that the Air Force system of assignments, moves, TDYs and pretty much everything else they do makes no sense? Yep. It's official. I'm not a quick study. Not with my hair and not with this.

BUT. There is great relief in just having dates since they are, after all, at the whims of the Air Force and could've come much later. So it's all good. And yes, family, we're excited to say that we'll be spending the holidays with you. And no, we don't know our exact plans so please try to understand that we're still figuring this out and we promise, promise, promise to tell you everything as we get it sorted out.

So, you have about 3 months to submit your final Japan shopping lists. As do I, so I'm going to be a busy girl!

P.S. Bat Pass is tomorrow night. We've never hosted a party this big before and despite the whooshy sound of money rushing out of our bank account, it's really fun! I hope the weather holds (Jeff keeps coming up with all of these disaster plans as if he knows it's going to rain, but yet claims he has nothing to base it on. And, quite frankly, if it's so windy it blows out our tiki torches - that's his latest what-if - then I think we're already screwed. It's kind of not about the tiki torches!) and I hope to get lots of pictures to post right here for your viewing pleasure. Stay tuned...