I don't really need to write to you just now - you'll be in port until the decom happens. But I still wish you were nearby, closer than the 1000 miles away you are right now. I want to feel your arms around me again, soothing my nerves and sending chills over my skin.

I wonder if you really do understand how much you mean to me. Since you brought your gentility and humor into my life, my usually cloudy and tangled mind has seemed clearer than I ever remember it having been, and my worries and distractions are at ease. Over and over you tell me I am beautiful, I am precious, I am loved, and I've finally begun to believe it. You have made me feel worthy of accepting it all, and I finally feel more competent in giving that love right back to you.

This month is our 4th Christmas as a couple, and our 3rd since we were married. How special it is to think that, with the very next month, we'll be starting a brand new way of life in more ways than one - we'll be welcoming a new life into the world and into our lives, and settling down into a new house for a short time. We will be a family, the three of us.

You mean the whole world to me, muffin. I miss you more than you may know. I can't wait for Christmas to bring us together again.