USTommyMC

It’s Christmas day in my part of the world but it’s just another work day for us communicators. Unlike the other units on this base, my section doesn’t have the luxury of taking the day off. Communications isn’t a nine to five responsibility and without us no one would be making their holiday phone calls.

My Christmas started at the stroke of midnight when I came on watch. On Christmas Eve, the day crew got their movie day and some time to relax. Just like on Thanksgiving, we go to watch a movie or two while watching the network from the corner of our eyes. Our company had a Christmas party and by the looks of the recorded video I saw everyone had a blast. As for me I simply slept through Christmas Eve to make the day go by faster.

I would have slept through Christmas as well but our section decided to get together and eat dinner. It’s very rare that all of us are in one spot at one time and it felt good to see everyone. Some of us can go days or weeks without seeing each other because of our schedule. We all met at the chow hall at 5 in the PM, ate for an hour and then headed back to work to commence our Secret Santa. It’s basically a gift exchange where no body knows who they are getting a gift from until the moment they get the gift. Again its rare but nice to see everyone together and happy. Right now we can’t be with our own families so we are the only family we have for the time being.

My shift doesn’t start until midnight but since I’m at work I figured I’d just stay and tell the Sergeant on watch to go home. That gives me an extra six hours to have the network go down on me and keep me busy for a while. Actually I’m the only one in my section at the moment. Everyone left to some gathering or something so I agreed to look after the network alone for a few hours. I mean what can go wrong (yes I just f*cked myself in saying that).

I chatted with my wife on Christmas morning (my time, xmas eve her time) and thanked her for my gift. She sent me a scrap book of sorts with pictures of us, basically a picture album. That is the best gift I’ve ever gotten. I’ve gotten socks and clothes and I usually buy myself gadgets but a gift made from the heart has more value. After thanking her she told me that she also got me an Xbox 360. Hmmm, maybe that’s the best gift I’ve ever gotten…just kidding.

So Christmas is almost over here and now I’m just waiting for it to be 2pm on the West Coast so that I can call my wife. After that I will call my house in NYC and speak to whoever is there from my family. After that I hope to catch the Monday night football game and struggle to stay awake.

Two holidays down, one to go.