Day 106

Someone was talking about Christmas Day the other day. My spirits weren’t exactly soaring so I said “Sunday’s not Christmas, it’s day 106.” Talk about a bad attitude.

Time is slowing to almost a standstill. Our replacements should be getting here sometime early next month, and I should be excited being so close to getting out of here, but I’m not yet. I guess for me it’s just like it was on Thanksgiving—not really Turkey Day unless I’m crashed on the couch watching football with the kids.

The Army did something pretty cool yesterday. Their guys, as you know, are in even a worse situation than we are—they get to stay for the full year rather than just four months. Last night they set up a VTC (Video Teleconference) with a conference room back in the States. On the other end they had a children’s Christmas party going on where they could see their kids open some presents and say hello to their families. Man, technology is incredible sometimes. My buddy here is an Army guy—goes about 220 and can probably bench press twice his weight. Big dude. Former artillery officer. He was relaying the story of what he got to do last night and his eyes filled with tears as he was saying this—and he still has 8 months to go. He’s missing his daughter’s entire second year of life. At least he gets to go back for a week sometime in the summer.

I really wish the MSM would lay off of us for a little while and remember that being here is hard enough even with all the care packages and cards we get here. I truly think that the general public in the United States is overwhelmingly in support of us, but you couldn’t tell that from some of the stories that you see on TV.

AFN (American Forces Network) had a special dealio go on back in October where you could videotape yourself saying hello or wishing Merry Christmas to your family and they would air it on TV in your hometown. For some reason I declined to do it. Wish I had. Everyone that did has been able to have their families see it back home.

The kids are getting excited—both for Christmas and the prospect of their Daddy coming back. I’m trying to avoid telling them an exact day because I don’t want to disappoint them when I get extended here.