Salute to Spouses Blog

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We are Thankful: A Week of Essays from Military Spouses as they Remember Their Favorite Holidays, Celebrated Military Style

My most memorable Thanksgiving as a military spouse actually happened the day before Thanksgiving.

The day my husband returned home from his very first 12-month deployment was also his birthday. I had cleaned the house, I had washed the dog and I had primped and coiffed. My then 2-year-old was excited though she wasn’t quite sure why.

I had planned my Thanksgiving menu. My returning soldier is also a huge cook, so I allowed for variations once he returned. I had even hoarded away some special ‘fun cash’ to present to him for his extra grocery shopping pleasure.

Early that morning, we loaded the car and arrived on post early, filled with grand anticipation. The hangar was bursting with excitement. My girlfriends and I took tons of pictures in our redeployment finery and our children were playing and looking adorable with their tiny Red Cross issued American flags and hand-picked red, white and blue outfits. My husband’s parents were on the way too, but had called to let me know they had forgotten an ID and had to turn back.

Just a few moments later, I heard a cry. My daughter had accidentally collided head on with another child and busted her lip. She was bleeding onto her new dress and white bunny. Then, my husband called. It was the first call from his regular phone number that I had received in a year.

I heard his voice tell me he was on the bus ride up from the tarmac and ask if all was well. As I applied pressure to our child’s bleeding lip, and I wondered if his parents would make it in time, I lapsed into Army wife mode and chirped, “Everything’s great, honey! Can’t wait to see you!”

Everything was indeed great. Soon, the large hangar doors opened and sunlight spilled over rows and rows of beautiful soldiers marching in unison. My friends who didn’t have husbands arriving that day were poised to be my paparazzi. My daughter’s lip stopped bleeding and I searched the crowd.

I couldn’t find him! I knew he was there! As the Star Spangled Banner concluded and the speaker made the official dismissal, for a moment I panicked. He WAS here wasn’t he? I scooped up my daughter and rushed through the hoards.

All the heads and freshly shaved necks looked the same in those patrol caps! And then, in that enchanting moment, he found me and I found him. Our heartfelt embrace and his moment of kneeling in front of our daughter, bribing her with German chocolate from his pocket due to a tiny bit of shyness put Hallmark to shame.

He was home! And that was all that mattered.

After a hearty Mexican lunch with his parents who finally arrived, his bestowing upon me a beautiful black diamond and his fantastic grocery shopping spree, I found myself alone in a quiet kitchen. The sun had set on our magical day. Our daughter slept snugly in her toddler bed and I found my soldier, in his white sweater and jeans sound asleep on top of the covers of our neatly made bed.

I gently closed each bedroom door, sent up a silent prayer of thanks and retreated to the kitchen where I went to work. Chopping celery and carrots at 9:30 pm in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner had never been sweeter.

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