It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

I would have to say that the title of this post is probably one of the most mendacious statements that I have purposefully made on this blog since I started. It really doesn't look like Christmas. This place looks like Tatooine with a monsoon season. It is cold now, sometimes dipping down into the 40's with overcast skies, and a perpetual misty rain coming down. When you have sand that has the consistency of powdered sugar coupled with rain, you have a complete mess.

I went to chow the other night, and there were a bunch of Christmas decorations aroound, but I didn't get that Christmas feeling. They even had some members of the Army Band here playing Christmas songs, but I still didn't get the feeling. I feel like telling the big brass that coming up with something special for troops over in a combat zone is pointless. Just a gesture that only seeks to let us know how far from home, and how far away from a place that is filled with the Christmas spirit we are. All of this kind of feels as pointless as getting an alcohol swab across your arm before you are given a lethal injection.

I talked to my wife and kids yesterday, and I asked my kids what they were doing on their break from school and if they were excited about Christmas. That is when I felt close to home. That is when I felt full of the Christmas spirit. I felt like I had the Christmas spirit when I ordered a gift for my wife online, and when she told me about the toys she purchased for the kiddos. That is the only Christmas warmth I get. I really don't feel like Christmas right now....I think the 25th will come and go, with me acknowledging the birth of Christ. But yet, the sharing and the warmth, and yes the commercial aspect is hard to grasp here. Very hard.