November is pushing onward and before we realize it, the eleventh month shall be halfway over. The holidays are fast approaching. Soon it shall be time to set the Thanksgiving Day table. Not long after that day of giving thanks, the Christmas tree shall go up. The older I get, the more I realize one thing.
Time is fleeting.
Last year, Mike and I began what we hope is a yearly tradition for the Thanksgiving Day celebration. We were able to host two airmen from nearby Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls. Mike had seen an advertisement on a local television station asking for volunteer families to accept an airman or two into their homes. These would be young people who simply couldn't go home for the Thanksgiving Day feast with their own families.
Mike called me while my sister and I were in Kansas finishing up the necessities for selling my home there. He asked me if it would be ok for us to do it, and I couldn't think of any reason why it wouldn't be.
So we did.
We ended up that day with two very nice young men. They came into our home, wide eyed and with smiles on their faces. Both of them were kind of quiet at first, but as the morning drew on we could tell that they were really happy to have a "home" to be in. For both of them, it was their first holiday away from their own families, and so they became "our family" for the day.
They had great appetites and for that we were grateful. We had cooked way too much for those who would be there. The first thing I told them as they came through our living room door was that they'd better have empty stomachs and hollow legs. I intended to fill them up and then some. It worked out just fine. We ate, watched football all afternoon, ate some more, and then finally at 5 p.m. we took them back to the base. As they got out of the car, each carried bags of leftovers that we hoped they'd eat later on. It felt good to know they had eaten plenty.
It was one of the most rewarding of things we have ever done.
We went ahead to sign up for this Thanksgiving Day as well. People who agree to host someone do not know who it is ahead of time. You just show up at the main gate, sign in, and drive over to where they are waiting for you. It's actually quite simple.
As a country and a great nation, we need to do as much as we can to honor and take care of our soldiers. Maybe the normal person, just like us, can't do a huge amount. We can't change what will happen to them, where they will be transferred, or what conflict they might have to go through. Yet for one day, the last Thursday in the month of November, we can do something. It doesn't cost anything hardly at all, just the willingness to help out and one other important thing.
A place at the table.
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