Holidays and the Army

As everyone would guess, one of the most difficult parts of being married to a soldier is the distance we're constantly experiencing from our families. Mine being in Minnesota and Montana while my husbands in Oklahoma makes it especially difficult to travel home for the Holidays. We don't want to upset one over the other and a lot of the times we frankly just can't afford the financial burden of traveling across the country with a family of 5 and 2 large dogs.

I feel left out when my family posts photos of their gatherings and I feel heartbroken when I see how grown our nieces and nephews have become without us realizing. It's tough. I miss the traditionally board games, catch phrase and empty wine bottles.

And yet, I still feel blessed. Two years in a row we have hosted Thanksgiving dinner and have been surrounded by great friends. We invited soldiers the first year that had no where to go as well as a few close friends. It felt good not to be alone and it felt even better to offer a celebration to the soldiers in AIT staying at the barracks. This year we celebrated with two of our good friends' families. I love having a house full of little ones and our friends swapping stories.

It's funny how quickly I find myself developing close friends in this new life of ours. I'm normally a pretty guarded individual with well justified trust issues. Most of my close friends have been life long friends and here we are in this new way of living and I feel closer to the families we've known for 3 months then I do to those who have been there from the beginning. I miss our neighbors and friends from Pensacola with all of my heart. We were there just months but we spent nearly every day together going to the beach, complaining about our pregnancies and having fires. They take the place of our families when our families are thousands of miles away. They become the aunt and uncle your kids need, they are the ones who help make sure the kids get to school when you have a sick one and can't leave, when you have family emergencies and forget to work out the details without asking they're already putting the pieces together for you.

 

So, this year... I am thankful for these new relationships and this new way of life. I'm thankful for coming full circle and learning to love the fact I have to make new friends and develop close relationships with complete strangers, ha! I'm thankful for my new
support system and all the new little ones in my life to love on.