For some reason I didn’t have much Christmas spirit. To me it was just Tuesday. Having just seen my family I thought that not being home for Christmas wouldn’t bother me so much. Even though this is not the first Christmas that I have spent away from home, I just couldn’t muster up any excitement.
I went back to the office and continued to monitor the weather. The fog was lifting but at a snail’s pace. It appeared it would clear just in time. We were not scheduled to depart until 1330, so I did have a chance to go to the holiday meal. It was wonderful as expected, but not quite as spectacular as Thanksgiving. Several soldiers entertained us with Christmas Carols while we ate.
When I returned from lunch, the skies were clear of clouds but the visibility was still poor. Now, with only an hour to go, I had to make a tough decision. Do I hope that the weather clears or do I load Santa and his presents on the bus? I opted to use the bus and hope that the aircraft would meet us later. The impact would be a little less dramatic, but the objective would still be achieved. One would think this would be a simple change of plans. Oh no. Everywhere that Santa (Troy Patterson) went, people stopped in their tracks. Try as we might to leave the base, folks kept stopping us to get a picture. Even a group Russian Troops pulled us over for photo ops. We were drawing so much attention that two reporters from Stars and Stripes (military newspaper) asked us what we were up to. They were assigned to cover one of the Chaplain’s traveling out to a remote outpost to perform Service. Unfortunately, they planned to do this by helicopter, so they joined us also.
By the time we departed base we had quite a following. Part one went exactly as advertised. Bus one peels off to pick up the children from Donja Visca, while bus two continued on to Gornja Visca. The convoy linked back up and headed for Bedrock to meet the Blackhawk. As we headed up the hill I could see that the aircraft was not going to make it. Which strangely enough worked out in our favor, because a very large pile of snow recently created by snow plows blocked the final turn to the landing zone. So, we would have never have reached the aircraft. I ended up choosing a scenic overlook as the place to have Santa hand out presents. So we did.
On that cold snowy hill, with the sun setting, presents were passed out, hands were shook, and Merry Christmas greeting were shared, and pictures were taken by the dozens. This was not the plan we hatched but fate’s plan worked out perfectly. We returned both sets of children to their respective homes where groups of soldiers and civilians visited for a while. The children eagerly opened their presents. As I sat there, I did not see who got what. I did see children squealing, and parents smiling. My favorite part was watching the visitors who had not yet been to a camp. Through their eyes, I saw the same excitement and joy that I feel every time I visit. I thought when I dreamed up this plan that I was doing this for the children, but I realized I did it for these folks. I was thrilled to share this type of experience with them. I can’t speak for everyone else, but at that moment it finally felt like Christmas to me.