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Creative Christmas Stocking Ideas |
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MILITARY STOCKING Submitted by: Melanie Leaseburg
My husband has been deployed in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom 2 since February 14th, 2004. He is not
due to return home until March of 2005. Of course, I have sent
numerous care packages and letters. However, I thought long and
hard as to what to send him for Christmas, knowing that he has
limited space and that he is already getting ready to return
home.
He is a huge Washington Redskins fan, so I
ordered a plush NFL logo stocking to send to him. Instead of
candy and cookies, I decided to put "Memories" in the stocking.
The "Memories" will include the following:
I am making our home-movie into a DVD of our
Christmas Tree being decorated with red, white and blue ribbons
as well as a huge Yellow Ribbon on the top with a picture of him
right in the middle of the huge yellow bow- he is our Hero, our
Angel. In the DVD, our six year old is singing what Christmas
songs she knows, and our six month old infant is sitting nearby
watching intently. Our tree will stay up until Daddy comes home
so we can hang our 2004 family ornament together.
Speaking of the six month old, she was born
while Daddy was serving his country. He has the home movies of
her birth, but I have taken lots of pictures. I am printing out
a wallet-sized photo journal of her, one picture for every week
since she's been born that he has been away.
I also will include a copy of our itinery for
our planned "second honeymoon" upon his return. We are going to
take an adult vacation and the kids will stay with the
Grandmas. We have not really had any vacation without kids,
since our oldest daughter is his step-daughter.
Knowing that he will be returning home in a
few months, I included a "voucher" book that I made myself. It
has all sorts of "vouchers" for things that he can cash in on.
Hugs, kisses, movie night in sweat pants, getting the babysitter
to stay with our kids so that we can go out on a date, cooking
together, an afternoon with each of our children for just Daddy
and each individual child, an afternoon for Daddy and his
daughters, a promise that he'll one day be able to see the
Redskins play a live game, etc. There are 365 vouchers in all
because his orders as part of the 1st Infantry Division 3rd
Brigade 2/63 Armored Battalion were to deploy for 365 days. He
will end up being gone from home for a little longer than that,
though, I'm afraid.
And last but not least, I have written a love
letter to him, telling how very proud I am of his duty and his
service, how much I love him, and how much I support him. I
detailed what made me fall in love with him, and I also listed
why I was able to remain faithfully his for an entire year in
his absence.
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