Holiday Blues
Confession:
The holidays are fast approaching, and I’m not feeling the holiday spirit this year. More like I’m feeling the Holiday Blues.
Anyone else with me? Here at Fort Wainwright, we’ve had more than two feet of snowfall in the last two days. Before that, the temperatures dropped to -30, then the next day turned around and it was nearly 30 degrees. It feels like we straight up skipped fall. It lasted less than a month, and that was back in August.
I blinked and suddenly winter was here.
For me, this is the first time I’ve been away from my family for Thanksgiving, which is hard, because I was definitely looking forward to going home and spending the holiday with them. Now that is impossible due to restriction of movement for soldiers here at Fort Wainwright. I am unable to leave the state because I recently started working as a soldier full time with my reserve unit.
Even though being away from home is not how I wanted things to be for Thanksgiving, I’ve decided to find reasons to be thankful in this situation. I’m thankful because I’m able to start my own Thanksgiving and other holiday traditions.
Also, this holiday season I’ve decided to make mine and my soldier boyfriend’s Thanksgiving better by having a Friendsgiving. It will be a small group, of course, made up of the soldiers I like to call our “COVID” bubble, meaning the soldiers we work and interact with on a daily basis, most of which are single soldiers and will also be missing their family this holiday season. This gives me a reason be thankful this holiday season, because I love cooking and now I’m able to do so for others.
The holiday season is not what I expected it to be, but I’m going to try to make the most of it and find reasons to still be thankful. And as for Christmas, I’ve already started decorating for it because it already feels like Christmas up here. No matter what this holiday brings, whether you’re able to spend it with family or you’re away from home, I’d like to encourage you to make the most of the season.
