My best Christmas

It was a lonely December in Adana, Turkey. As a 21-year old airman with a wife and a new baby, this was our first Christmas away from home.

In this foreign land there were no twinkling lights, no decorations and no reminders of our precious season like at home. To them, it was just another month, but for us, it was supposed to be special.

We tried our best to make it festive. Buying a pine tree in this desert land was out of the question, so we found a two foot lemon bush, planted it in a small tub and decorated it with licorice strands and popcorn strings. We hung a fig sprig over the doorway instead of mistletoe. We played Bing Crosby on the stereo and remembered the holidays from our past.
But the best moment came on Christmas Eve.

I went to the Base Post Office and there was a notice for me to come to the counter. The military mail clerk told me to come to the side and there he showed up with a dolly holding a huge box. I lifted it into my station wagon and hurried home.

The three of us ripped open the box -- not waiting till Christmas morning. Our families had sent items from home -- Cracker Jacks, newspapers, a baseball, videotapes of the Bob Newhart show, and chocolates from the neighborhood candy store and many other things.

They remembered us in a far away land. And because of the mail we received we were reminded of our home, of the land we love.

The memories still linger and I often wish I could relive them.