The Joy of Giving This Holiday Season

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6 years ago

I just wanted to stop by real quick and wish everyone here at WA a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I also wanted to share a heartwarming story that made my holiday so much brighter. The holidays this year have been very rough on me because my 2 older sons are in the military and are not able to be home with me for the holidays. On top of that, my mom retired to South Carolina this year.

In years past, we would have Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house and then they would come to our house for Christmas. But this year, it is just me, my husband and my 8 year old son for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I am VERY thankful to have them in my life, but this time of year is for family getting together and enjoying the season together.

However, this is also a season for giving and helping make things brighter for others.

How doing something for others helped me

As some of you know that may have read some of my previous blogs (as few and far between as they are), I am a Navy veteran and supporting veterans and our troops is one of my biggest passions. Back in September, I participated in a food drive and collected over 270 pounds of lunch items to send to our deployed troops for an organization called Soldier's Angels.

Then a few weeks ago, I put together 17 Christmas stockings to be sent to our troops that could not be home this year. These are pics of the goodies put in these stockings (there was also a handmade cross stitch ornmanent in each stocking that was stitched by members of my cross stitch community on Facebook).

These are the stockings with a beanie cap put over them.

These were then sent to Soldier's Angels (thank goodness my husband works for FedEx and we got a HUGE discount on the shipping..lol) who then sent them to our troops overseas.

Each stocking included a picture of me and my family and a little letter and included my email address in hopes they would write me to let me know it was received.

I got an email on Saturday!!! Recieving this email totally made my day! Here is what that email said (I had a few happy tears coming down my face as I read it):

Mrs. Kuhn,
First, thank you for your service to our country. We definitely love to hear from veterans that understand what we're doing ov...er here in Afghanistan. Thank you also for your generosity during this holiday season. We really appreciate the stocking, snacks, and handmade ornament. We were actually able to get our hands on a Christmas tree so we were able to hang your ornament up. Even though we're over here because we love our country and love what we do, we appreciate the support from back home. Its great to know that people still care about our troops and the causes that we're fighting for. I hope you and your family have a happy holiday season, and that your sons are able to make it home soon. Don't hesitate to stay in contact. I'll respond when able.

Respectfully, Ian A. Eder CPT, SF Detachment Commander

Unfortunately for security reasons I can't share the picture, but it was a VERY cool picture of the unit in their battle gear and holding rifles and such :) Is a picture I will cherish always. He also sent me a picture of a couple of them in front of the tree and I could see the ornament I sent hanging right in front.

I am hoping I might hear from some of the others that received my stockings, but even if I don't, just hearing from this one brought me more joy this season than anything else could have (other than having my boys home with me of course).

I hope this warmed your heart as it did mine :)