Christmas Party

Sunday 12/17/06
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Last night we had a Christmas party for the entire headquarters. It consisted of a catered dinner and holiday music in a hall decorated for Christmas. I didn’t think I’d be especially interested, but it was nice. The people who organized it put in a lot of work to make it fun and festive.

They brought over the FORSCOM band, which was really a quite talented group. They had a singer who was amazing. When they temporarily lost power from the generator (it was raining pretty hard, and water and electricity don’t mix well), she sang a few carols a capella.

One thing was kind of interesting – she sang a well-known carol (I can’t remember which one right now) and relatively few people sang along. Then she sang one I never heard before, and quite a few of the black soldiers joined in enthusiastically. I commented on it, and they told me it’s a popular Christmas carol among black people. I’m sure just as many white people in the group knew the words to the previous one, but we were a lot more inhibited about singing along. I guess it’s a cultural thing.

I was hoping they might have some eggnog, but they didn’t. They did have a punch that tasted for all the world like a creamsicle (those orange popsicles with white stuff inside). It had some kind of bubbly pop in it, and was pretty good.

They had a Humvee set up with a sandbag chair for Santa. I got my picture taken with Santa and his helper. I’d have liked to have sat in her lap (or vice versa), but no such luck! ;-)


061216 Christmas Party
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

They did have “single soldier” gifts which I thought was a nice touch. At one point during the party I thought of the beach party scene from “Apocalypse Now”. As the Air Cav troopers grilled steaks, drank beer, and sang songs, the narrator commented that “the more they tried to make it just like home, the more they missed it.” I didn’t feel that way last night, though. Most of the time I just feel like I'm alone over here - it's not like being in a unit where you know the people and have things in common. But last night I felt more of an affinity and sense of kinship with the people around me than I have felt before.

All in all it was a good time and I’m glad I went.

Today is Sunday, which is the day I take off for myself. I plan to spend the rest of the day in the gym and the library, and then go to the internet café this evening.

Mood: Good
Music: Altan – The Red Crow