All Hearts Go Home for Christmas

“All hearts go home for Christmas, for love is always there”


The year that my husband, Bob, joined the Army, our four year old daughter, Gayle, and I joined him at Fort Hood, Texas, shortly after he finished training in November. Ohio had always been home, and I had had no desire to leave. The recession of 1974 had forced Bob out of work, and after almost two years without a job, Bob was glad for the opportunities the Army offered.

We had sold most of our furniture and stored our belongings in our home in Toledo, which was rented to friends. My sister, Kathie, drove with Gayle and me to our new home, a small furnished apartment in the booming military metropolis of Killeen in central Texas. A day or two later when I watched her plane leave from Austin airport, I felt very much alone. Thanksgiving, a holiday which we had celebrated exactly the same every year for as long as I could remember, was three short weeks away. Facing the holidays in a new place without our extended families and no friends was a bleak thought indeed.

Fortunately, Bob did not share my dampened spirit about this new life of ours. His enthusiasm and Gayle’s natural cheerfulness were my lifeline those first months away. We made the best of Thanksgiving. We ate at the Holiday Inn. It certainly wasn’t Aunty Mary’s perennial feast, and having three at the table instead of our usual 10 or 12 was a change, but we had deliberately chosen to make it as different as possible so there would be no comparison.

As Christmas approached, we decided to make the best of that as well. A tiny tree decorated with homemade ornaments stood in one corner of our living room. We purchased a few small gifts for Gayle -- we didn’t have much to spend. It wasn’t so much that we wouldn’t have the usual pile of presents under the tree that bothered me, but that we would be away from “home”.

Bob was a medical lab technician and worked in the blood bank at the post hospital. Just three days before Christmas, he came home with the wonderful news that the chief had arranged work schedules so that everyone in their section would have either Christmas or New Year’s off, and a few extra days besides. Bob was fortunate to have been given Christmas, beginning at 4 PM on the 23rd. It takes 24 hours of driving, including minimal time for fueling, eating, and rest stops. The drive wouldn’t be a problem. Bob has always been an endurance driver. I would help out when he got tired. We could do it…weather permitting. We would do it! We packed the back of our station wagon, tucking Gayle into a sleeping bag between suitcases, and left Killeen just 24 hours before the Christmas festivities would start at my sister’s home in Ohio. We told Kathie we were coming, but she decided not to tell the rest of the family. It would be a surprise. The excitement was delicious.

But perhaps the most memorable part of that Christmas happened very quietly and unexpectedly in the middle of the night somewhere in Arkansas or Missouri. Have you ever had a moment in your life that was etched permanently into your soul? Gayle was asleep in the back of the car, and Bob dozed in the passenger seat as I drove. The night was cold and black, but thousands of stars were twinkling in the heavens. Christmas hymns were playing on the radio. I thought about Christmas -- about what we are really celebrating: the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. For the first time in my life, I pondered the meaning of Christmas. An indescribable peace settled over me. I will never forget that feeling.

Joyful tears and hugs were plentiful as Bob, Gayle and I surprised our family at 6:00 on Christmas Eve. Since that Christmas years ago, we have spent many away from Toledo, but we have learned that home is where we are. And our family is whoever is with us. The best part of Christmas for me is the part I found that night -- the peace that comes from knowing.

* * * * * * *

I'm so grateful for the Savior, for his life and for his sacrifice that makes it possible for each of us to repent and to return to our Heavenly Father. Wishing you, your family, and all of those you love a joyful and blessed Christmas and a healthy and happy 2008.

Pam