Christmas

So Christmas was a little unexpected, but interesting.  I woke up and went for a run, and much to my surprise, I saw a few Soldiers dressed as Santa, Elves and Reindeer being pulled along in a sleigh down the street, all the while dancing in the sleigh.  It was also a further surprise to find out that they were some of our own Soldiers, and that they were making a visit to our very own dining facility.

Turns out that in order to be pulled in a sleigh and dance, you need something other than Christmas music to dance to.  Imagine my amusement when I found out that Santa Claus and his elves did, in fact, have techno dance music playing as they went down the street dancing and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I swear, the only reason I carry a camera with me is so that I can prove to people that I don't make this stuff up.

As I went to get my camera, I found out that I would be flying today.  In 40 minutes, no less.  I got dressed and pretended that I knew what I was doing (which actually sums up most of what I do in life anyways).  

Turns out that we'd be hopping from Forward Operating Base (FOB) to Forward Operating Base today.  After completing pre-flight, I went to get myself a "to-go" plate for lunch and set it, along with my Diet Coke, next to my seat.  After a few stops at a few bases, I indulged a little in Christmas lunch.  In the cockpit.  

Merry Christmas to me. Diet Coke, as always, remains upright and unspilled.

We hit up a number of bases on our trip today.  I need to be the first to say that I really have no right to complain about my living conditions.  For us, life sucks because the Internet is too slow to really browse Youtube effectively looking for videos of World of Warcraft characters dancing (don't judge).  For the thousands of Soldiers who live in Combat Outposts on the outskirts of cities, built during the height of the Surge of 2007, life sucks because they don't have anywhere near the luxuries we have (i.e., coffee shop, large post exchange), nor the essentials, like toilets that actually work.  As ghetto-fabulous as my living conditions might seem, they're a five-star hotel in comparison to how the conditions the Soldiers may live in as they work among the Iraqi people.

One of the crew chiefs poses for the camera.

Taking off from the Combat Outpost, we landed at another FOB and indulged in a huge dinner, complete with turkey, ham, and pretty much everything that you could think of for dinner.  Oh, and fake wine as well, so that I wouldn't have to stoop to drinking fake beer.  I have taste, you know...

What was really neat about this particular FOB's dining facility was that they had taken pains to construct a real-life nativity scene, complete with goats and a turkey.  

I made sure to get some coffee for myself, so that the turkey wouldn't put me to sleep on the trip home.  And, of course, I didn't miss my opportunity to have my picture taken with Santa. I have no idea why he somehow thought I was on his "nice" list for this year. That guy's getting senile.

And if that weren't enough for today, I had to open my presents, make a few Skype calls, and finally update my Blog.  Being an Internet celebrity is harder than it looks...