White Christmas

I can’t remember the last time I experienced a white Christmas. We’ve been back in Utah for over 10 years and it’s never snowed in Utah County on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day the entire time we’ve been back. Prior to that, we were in Virginia – no snow there, prior to that - San Diego – no snow, although we came back to Utah for Christmas and prior to that Utah. I think the last time it snowed on Christmas Eve was when we were still living in Utah as students. That’s been a long time ago.

Every year, I pray for snow on Christmas Eve. Every year I’ve been disappointed. Well it snowed this year. Of course I had to be in Afghanistan to experience a white Christmas but I got my wish.

It started snowing around 3:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve and it’s still snowing 24 hours later and is supposed to snow all night. I just love the snow. It makes everything, even Afghanistan, look so beautiful and clean. I wish it could stay this way forever.

Now all I want to do is go skiing. Oh well. Next year.

I wrote this entry this afternoon at yes, 3:00 p.m. It’s now almost 6:00. I just came back from dinner. I’ll tell you about that in another post.

Being the sentimental guy that I am, I had to go walking around camp enjoying the falling snow. I had my iPod with me and was listening to Christmas music. The iPod gods were smiling upon me as I took my walk.

When I turned it on, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was right in the middle of a beautiful rendition of Silent Night. I stopped to watch the snow fall in the glow of a street lamp and enjoy the music. As I said, the iPod gods were smiling as the very next song was good ole Bing singing White Christmas, one of my favorites. I had to smile at the selection – my iPod was on shuffle so I had no idea the order of the songs. As I started walking again the gods continued to smile as Tony Bennett began to sing Winter Wonderland. I don’t know if someone was sending me a message or not but listening to those particular songs as I walked through the snow really and finally made it seem like Christmas.

I came upon three soldiers who had started a fire and were roasting smores. They invited me to join them but I didn’t figure they wanted a LTC sitting with them. They had “built” their snow guard to watch their backs. It looked like they were having a good time.

Yes, I was a little, maybe a lot, homesick, wishing Janae could be walking with me in the snow but quickly set aside those feelings and remembered why we’re here and what we’re doing.

Anyway, thanks to the iPod gods for smiling down on me tonight. Or maybe He was smiling down on me tonight and had a hand in things…