I feel bad. I haven't posted anything in a few days. The holidays are a tough time, and I didn't quite feel like writing. I didn't know how to say what I have been feeling. The holidays for me means Christmas, my wedding anniversary, and New Years. As of now all three have come. It is hard to be away from home for the holidays. If you have ever done it you know what I mean. The job keeps us busy and one day is a lot like all the other, but all of a sudden it is Christmas Eve and you are looking around all of the stupid decorations that the hindu Indians who work there have put up in the chow hall and you start feeling it. The last week has been hard to take. It would have been better in a way if we had had a mission to take our minds off it, but we haven't. We don't go out again until tomorrow. I had a good day on Christmas. We had a little barbeque and a gift exchange. The girl who organized the gift exchange put a MINIMUM of $30 on the gift and it wasn't optional to participate. I protested and didn't spend near that, but we all had a good time. We played horseshoes in the dark (remember we work the night shift so our barbeque didn't start until the sun was going dow) with chemlights taped to the stakes so that we could see them. It isn't easy to aim at a chemlight. They mess with your depth perception. We had as much fun as we could under the circumstances. I did pretty well, and Julie got a video camera for Christmas that she could use as a webcam and I was able to see her and the boys that afternoon which made me really happy. The boys had fun showing me all the presents that they got. I think Julie enjoyed showing me her presents too.
I remember the first Christmas that I was away from home and couldn't help but compare it to this one. I was in Brazil and we went to a families house for a barbeque. In the southern hemisphere it is summer at Christmas time and everyone barbeques. The strange thing is that we didn't barbeque pork or beef but huge tortoises! I spent the day slaughtering and butchering three of them. I felt then a lot like I feel now. I remember looking around me and being amazed that I was in such a strange place when all I wanted to do was be home with my family.
I handled this Christmas a little better until my anniversary, our ninth, and then it started to get a lot more difficult. It was as hard to be away on this day as on Christmas. I miss Julie most of all being over here and the day just served as a reminder of how far away I really am. I have spent over a year of our nine away from home and it will be almost two out of 10 by the time I get back home. It seems strange to be celebrating an anniversary when I haven't been home in six months and haven't seen my wife in two. I don't live a married life. I live a single life with someone at home I miss and like to talk to. It's tough as you can imagine.
Today is New Years. Here it is just one more day. I worked hard today and although I was in a bad mood it was more because of the difficult week than because of what day it is. Tomorrow we leave on a mission and I will have a lot to do to distract me from my sorrow.
On the bright side I only have eight months left :|.
2 comments:
So glad you had a chance to post again. I heard that some of my cousins sent you Christmas greetings--I'm so glad they thought to do that. I also hope Julie sent you our gift--she was supposed to do it while I was in Utah driving Lauren back to Texas, but I guess she got distracted.
I've certainly never been away from home the way you are, but I agree that keeping busy is the only way to stay sane. We're trying to take good care of Julie and the boys and help them stay busy, too. Tonight we all celebrated the new year, along with your folks and siblings and others from the ward. We had fun, played games, ate yummy food, rang in the New Year and headed home.
We pray for you daily and think of you all the time.
Take care....
I guess it's just not over there. Christmas kinda snuck up on us here too. We didn't have an anniversary to complicate things however. I had thought Julie and the boys would be hanging out here more often. But we are technologically primitive - no HD TV, no Wii, no Guitar Hero. Heck, I'm not sure why I stay around...
Sounds like an interesting way to play horseshoes. Night vision gear would be cool too. A non-voluntary gift exchange? Nice. And from the morale officer - "Morale will improve. That is an order."
It's great that Julie got you the video the same day. I think there are tiny Star Wars pieces everywhere now. We continued your tradition of going to the Galleria on Christmas Eve. Sherry, Lauren and I were your proxies this year. That mall is SOOO less crowded than The Parks. It was unbelievable. I'm glad I went. I hadn't gotten a nativity for Sherry this year and I found one that I instantly liked. It turns out that it was pretty much the only Christmas decoration that went up this year. Afterwards, julie and the boys went to Campo Verde while we had the mishes over. We converged later to go caroling. Unfortunately, nobody else showed up. So we went looking at Christmas lights. John has been involved with a house for several years that has an increasing number of lights. There was a contest this year to guess how many they used. I guessed 55,000. They broadcast over an FM channel, so everyone driving by can hear the music and program that goes with the lighting.
I hadn't heard the barbequed tortoise for Christmas story before. Do they taste like chicken too?
Post a Comment