Merry Christmas!
Vol.4 No.64
Merry Christmas!
Christmas is a special time of year where we acknowledge and celebrate the birth of Jesus and thus the fulfillment of the prophecies. It’s a magical time of year where neighborhoods are lit up with lights and decorations and many are doing their best to spread goodwill in the world. It’s a time of year when acts of selfless service are common and for a moment there is hope that peace on earth is possible.
Christmas is a time of year when Family and Friends gather together in goodwill and celebrate the season. For my hometown Run Club, our annual Christmas Social is the biggest of the year and something I look forward to all year long. This year’s social was another great event filled with friends, laughs, food and flowing drinks.
Throughout my adult life, I’ve spent every Christmas with friends. Even after I met my incredible wife and we established our own little family, our Holidays were always spent with friends. This new dynamic in my life started in 1999 when I left my childhood home to join the U.S. Army in October. That following Thanksgiving was spent in Basic Combat Training with my fellow trainees at Fort Sill, OK. It was my first Thanksgiving away from home and the first of many spent with friends.
Over the course of the next four years, I’d spend my Holidays at Fort Bragg with my friends and fellow Paratroopers who couldn’t afford to travel back home or simply didn’t want to. As a single soldier living in the barracks I’ve spent Christmas Eve on 24-hour duty, ending my duty on Christmas morning or picking up my 24-hour shift starting on Christmas Day. This was common practice at the time, allowing those married Soldiers to spend time with their families.
Those 24-hour duties weren’t spent solo, we were always in a team of two and there were always fellow Paratroopers still in the barracks over the Holidays. Often those nights were spent playing spades with plenty of libations, while I wasn’t on duty.
On each of those Holidays that I’d work a 24-hour shift, I had phenomenal Leaders who would bring me a plate or two of homemade meals from their own families. These Leaders would stick around and talk to me, making sure I was ok. Later in life when I became a Noncommissioned Officer, I emulated these Leaders and made it a habit to always visit the Barracks and bring plates of food for all of those on Duty.
It was not just my duty to ensure those under my charge were taken care of, it was my honor and privilege.
Later in my career I met my wife, Elizabeth and we established our own family with two of our own children. The Army transported me from Idaho to North Carolina, a place where I had no family. My wife is from Miami, and while she has a robust and large family, all she had in North Carolina was myself and her sister. This dynamic was not unique to me, as most of the 50,000+ Soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg were not from North Carolina and visiting family was not easy.
Spending the Holiday’s with friends was just a way of life. It was common and expected. Friends got us through all the hard times, through deployments and those long bouts of loneliness that can set it when your familial support structure is so far away.
It is no surprise then that this Holiday season and Christmas I’ve spent with my friends. Nearly all of which are associated with my hometown Run Club, the Clayton Area Runners.
Gone are the days of taking plates of food to those on 24-hour duty or calling my Paratroopers to ensure they are doing ok on Christmas. Gone are the days of spending the evening playing spades and drinking with the boys, sharing stories of “back home” and hearing the different family traditions from Puerto Rico to Wisconsin, California and Maine.
What hasn’t changed is that I spend the Holidays with friends!
At this stage in life, my daughter is not home Christmas and has opted to spend it with her boyfriend in another state. It will be a quiet Christmas Day with my wife and son, however on Christmas Eve I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to run with friends. It’s just part of my life, it’s how I’ve lived my life for the past 26 years.
On Christmas Eve, a big group of us gathered together for a sunrise run through town followed by a very informal social with cookies and fellowship. While many things in my life have changed significantly, one important element has remained the same, that I spend Holidays with friends.
There is no greater gift than friendship. - The Polar Express
If you are reading this on or near Christmas, I hope you have an incredible day spent with your loved ones.
