And So This Is Christmas....

I still can't believe only one year ago many of my friends and I were celebrating another deployed Christmas. After the first deployment, the rest of them just seemed so much easier to me. I remember crying the first Christmas Chaz was gone, but that because Deryn had just been born in September and I wanted him here with us. I guess holidays apart just became easier to handle was because I knew what to expect and how to handle them better. I learned to surround myself with joy and positivity so I didn't go crazy! But it never ceases to amaze me how fast time flies. I realized this morning, we finally tipped the scale! Chaz has been home for more Christmas celebrations then he has been gone. Now that scale is gone, he's ours from now on!

One year ago, my hubby and his guys were eating MREs and dodging bullets. Now he and his guys are back with their families and eating delicious home cooked meals. I am so thankful to have so many of our friends back with us this year. But my heart breaks knowing that there are families who are separated this year. My heart breaks knowing there are families spending Christmas in the hospital this year. My heart breaks knowing there are people spending Christmas alone.

I have had many of my civilian friends say, "I just don't know how you Army wives do it." I would tell them I made my decision a long time ago. I chose to take as many days God would give me with Chaz as opposed to never having him in my life at all. Yes we have given him up again and again, but no matter where he was, he was still in our lives and that's what made it all tolerable. I knew that one day I'd get to stop giving him up again and again, but I seriously thought we had 7 more years of Army fun and deployments. We never saw this all coming, but does anyone?!

I am so happy that last year was the last year Chaz will be separated from us. I wish I could give this gift to all of my military friends. I wish I could wave my magic wand and bring all of our troops home. But I can't, so our family will think about and pray for them all today. We will pray they find some peace and rest and a hot meal.

Tonight we will make our cookies for Santa and the girls will get their Christmas Eve pajamas. We'll all get our hot chocolate and curl up together. We will then tell our girls the real meaning and the story behind Christmas. We will tell them how the birth of one miracle child blessed our world. We will remind them how blessed we are to be together and that we are so blessed to have another Christmas together as a family. We will pause and focus on our blessings and we will make more Christmas memories together.

We hope you have a truly blessed and Merry Christmas!