Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to you and yours wherever you may be.

This year, due to some unexpected home costs, I won’t be able to have Christmas with my kids and now three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Seeing them is something truly special to me.

So you get memories…

As I sit here in a warm kitchen sipping a cup of coffee, I can’t help remembering back to being a little boy some 60 years ago, I can only give thanks that I’ve made it this far. I remember the first bike, the first Tonka toys (what I wouldn’t give to still have them), riding over to my friends houses to see what they got and playing for hours…

Then the military, some years Christmas was a string of tinsel in the shop in some overseas location and a box of cookie crumbs.  Other years it was taking the watch so another sailor could have Christmas with his wife and kids. And then it was my family, those first Christmases with my daughters, watching them tear into the wrapping paper with glee, and playing as much with the boxes as the dolls and other toys.

Now I get to watch that for another generation and I’m truly humbled by it.  And thankful I made it this far.  I also can’t help but remember those that didn’t. the ones who for a myriad of reasons aren’t spending time with their families, because we buried them along the way, or they are standing the duty in those far flung locations far from home.

nuff said…

Comments

Merry Christmas!!! — 16 Comments

  1. I’m sorry you don’t have the opportunity to be with your immediate family. I’m sure they miss you too.

    Stay safe and warm and know that Christmas brings all of us together.

  2. Happy Christmas NFO! Thanks for being the stone wall between whatever was out there and us back home. I’m remembering Christmases past as well today. Seems life is in the fast lane and I’m hardly making headway now. May God richly bless you today!!

  3. Merry Christmas, NFO. Keep the memories bright in your mind. For that is the only way we give eternal life to those that we knew along the way.

  4. Merry Christmas and the blessings of the season to you!!

  5. Sorry you missed out on your kids and grands, but you are not alone. You have us here with you; a bunch of vagabonds and deplorables Enjoy your Christmas, Old NFO.

  6. A very Merry Christmas to you and your family and friends, Jim!

    G-d willing, I’ll see you in Chattanooga.

    Regards,
    Ted and Marilyn Ung