HAPPY,  NEW YEAR

As a parent of a deployed soldier, holidays are a mixed bag of fruit. On one hand, I enjoyed the first Christmas of my youngest grandchild, 3 months old. I enjoyed having all my grandkids underfoot on Christmas Eve! I enjoyed spending time with both sides of our family, all here local and easy to get back and forth to see. I enjoyed waking up to enough snow to make it seem like Christmas...in the words of my almost 5 year old grandson, "NOW it's Christmas!" 

We were SOOO blessed beyond measure to Skype with my son at family gatherings while gift exchanges were taking place....it was so neat to pass his wife's phone around so everyone could visit a little while with him. Family photos were done with him showing up on the phone. :) 

But at the same time...we missed him dearly. WE were having fun. But what was HE doing?? Did it even seem like Christmas to him where he is?? Could he enjoy any aspect of it?? I hope so...we did everything in our tool box of resourcefulness to make him have a little Christmas in his boxes. Uncle Si T-shirt, pine scented do dads, wrapped food items in Christmas paper, the list goes on...was it enough?? Lord, did we fill in the gap?
There was comfort in knowing that the same Jesus we were celebrating in our location is the very same Jesus our son was personally celebrating in his location...no matter where we are or how far the distance may be, we can feel connected by and through the Savior. :)

New Year's Day. The ball dropped here...what happened over there? What did he get to visualize as the beginning of a new year around the world? Skype again allowed him to share it with his wife and family....thank You Lord!

2014. We are praying for a HAPPY YEAR alright. One that will see our soldier HOME. Let the real countdown begin....