WoF: My funniest Christmas memory

My funniest Christmas memory may not be all that funny to you, but it sure taught me a good lesson that Christmas is what you make it!

My parents are volunteer firefighters and EMTs on their local volunteer fire department. I grew up in a rural part of Wisconsin and they have been doing this since I was a baby, so rescue and fire calls are natural in our family. It never fails that there's a call during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, etc...and generally right in the middle of getting the food out of the oven and having a house full of people.

This particular year it was Christmas Eve, my parents had planned on taking my sisters and me out for dinner. As we were getting ready to head into town for dinner, there was a rescue call. My parents threw on their gear and tore out the door. By the time they got back home for dinner it was pretty late. I don't know why one of us didn't just make dinner, but it must not have crossed our minds. We headed into town and the restaurant we had planned on going to was already closed for the night. We headed down the road to another restaurant. And then another. All closed. Even McDonald's was closed!

We stopped at a gas station which was still open. We all got to pick out a tv dinner (which was pretty neat in itself because our parents NEVER let us have tv dinners!) and we headed home and enjoyed our frozen dinners! Those dinners were awful.

I'm not exactly sure why I find this story funny - when I read it, it's kind of sad. But we laughed so hard that night. And I'm still laughing at it as I think about it.
Maybe that's why I stick it out as a military wife. Each crisis could become a tragedy if we don't choose to laugh it off. After all, as The Man says, "Why worry about it? No one is shooting at you."

Read more military wife experiences here!