VWE, brutha, all I can say is that many many of us have been in your shoes. I did it many times. Personally, it sucks every time as much as the previous. I'm not sure how "close" your unit is, but this time of year is when you really need to lean on each other the most. The guy beside you is going through the same thing you are. Remember that. Help each other. You have family back home, but you are with family now also.
Like any deployment, it's what you make of it.
One Christmas in Kosovo, every humvee in my company had a 2ft. cardboard figure of Mr. Hanky attached to the front. As we drove through the villages on patrol (like any other day), some soldiers in a humvee mounted w/ loudspeakers were singing the Mr. Hanky song to all the locals. You should have seen the look on all their faces:lol I'm sure they didn't understand a word of it but they all stopped and stared with these "WTF?" faces->
This got everybody laughin and it set off a chain reaction where all of a sudden the whole patrol convoy was singing that stupid Mr. Hanky song as loud as we possibly could! Locals in the next village actually ran away as we approached:lol Stupid-yes, childish-pretty much, necessary-TOTALLY. Instead of a sucky deployed Christmas I hated, it became one I'll always remember and laugh about.
That's my point. Christmas does NOT have to suck when you are "over there". I spent 2 Christmas's in Iraq, 1 in A'stan, 1 in Bosnia, and 1 in Kosovo. I missed 5 out of the first 12 of my daughter's Christmas's. All were hard, yes, but my guys made the best of it and they each time became tolerable. But we took the initiative to make it so. Chin up and drive on troop, you'll be alright. Soldiers have been in the same boat you are in since the very first Christmas.
MAKE it good and memorable. Hooah?
Mr. Hanky, the Christmas Poo
