College Kids Come Home

As difficult as Army life can be at times, we are so thankful for many of the benefits we have received. One of them that we are particularly thankful for right now is the Student Travel Program. It allows for one round-trip flight for college students whose military sponsor (parent) is stationed overseas. We haven't actually gotten to use that particular program yet, but in the process of signing the Middles up for it, we found out that this first year they get an extra flight (technically a PCS move) overseas. We provided all the pertinent paperwork and information, and flights were booked from their nearest airports. The awesome thing was that they met up in Baltimore and completed the last leg (Baltimore to Ramstein) together!

There was much excitement in this household, let me tell you, as we prepared for them. All the Christmas favorites ready and waiting, the decorations (minus the tree-we waited for them to decorate it) up, and clean sheets, warm blankets, and yummy treats ready to ease them out of their jet lag.

THEY MADE IT!!!

Thelma Lou was just as excited to see Nick as Joshua was...

We had a lot planned for the couple weeks they were here and we hit the ground running. First up was to see The Hobbit! We went to the German theater in Landstuhl and it was a great experience. Very different than American movie theaters-you purchase assigned seats, they sell actual food at the concessions, and there is a lovely lounge area to wait in rather than a loud, crowded lobby. Also, there are no refills (your sodas come in glass bottles) and rather than just leaving your trash for staff to pick up, or cramming it into an over-full garbage can on your way out, you neatly recycle everything into various containers by the door. :)

And the movie was great-Joshua was so sad it was over.