Christmas Back Home

Well, I'm back in the US and I haven't come close to writing anything on this blog since setting foot on American soil back in October. I promise, one day soon I'll finish up the deployment blogging. But right now I'm back home in Nashville, sitting in my parents' living room, sort-of watching college football while the Christmas tree lights glow by the television. Last year at this time I was at FOB Lagman in Afghanistan to play music for the troops there, which was a nice break from being at Kandahar Air Field. While I am honored to have spent nearly a year over there and our holiday jaunt to Lagman was actually a pretty enjoyable trip, it is good to be back home. Very, very good. I still have friends back in Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas and I hope they can all experience the holidays with their families soon enough. This year I've thought less about gifts and more about how being back in my home nation is a gift, and that just having the freedoms and luxuries that we do is a gift. So to all of you reading this, I ask you to take a minute and reflect on the blessings we have and the sacrifices that make them possible. I hope you all have an extraordinary Christmas. And to the extremist terrorists whose actions necessitate our overseas actions, I leave you with a quote from John Lennon: war is over, if you want it.