Adopting Airman Away From Home For The Holidays

[DVC Sadie]

We are so excited to be able to participate in this program this year and look forward to finding out how many airman will be coming to how house for Thanksgiving. We have signed up for 8 but don't know the exact number as of yet.

For those of you who have participated in this program could you please give me some ideas on how this worked for your family? What did you serve? Did they stay long enough to watch the football games? Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

 

[Aisling]

I've never done this, but just wanted to say it's wonderful thing you're doing.

 

[JodyLynC]

do you have more information on this program??

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Bless your heart! What a wonderful thing to do! I would very much like to know more about the program too...my dad was a in the Navy from the time he was 19 until he retired 30 yrs later...I'd love to honor his memory & service (as well as their service) by welcoming these young men/women for a holiday dinner.

(p.s. Meant to add that we did host Mormon Missionaries who were away from home, for Christmas dinner a few times. We are Catholic, but have dear Mormon friends. They came maybe an hour before dinner, we had little gifts for each of them which they opened then, and they stayed until early evening. At the time they missionaries not allowed to watch TV, but it was not against the rules for us to have the TV on, so we watched whatever Christmas movie was on. They very much enjoyed the day and we were blessed to have them with us.)

 

[a1tinkfans]

We are so excited to be able to participate in this program this year and look forward to finding out how many airman will be coming to how house for Thanksgiving. We have signed up for 8 but don't know the exact number as of yet.

For those of you who have participated in this program could you please give me some ideas on how this worked for your family? What did you serve? Did they stay long enough to watch the football games? Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

LOVELY what you are doing, never heard of this before!!

 

[traviesojmt]

We are so excited to be able to participate in this program this year and look forward to finding out how many airman will be coming to how house for Thanksgiving. We have signed up for 8 but don't know the exact number as of yet.

For those of you who have participated in this program could you please give me some ideas on how this worked for your family? What did you serve? Did they stay long enough to watch the football games? Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

I haven't done this program, but I have hosted Thanksgiving for about 8 soldiers who worked with my husband when we were stationed overseas. I know it is a bit different because my husband knew most of them (not well, but at least knew them).

I think if will matter if the airman know each other or do not. If they are all from the same unit, they are more likely to feel comfortable and may stay longer. Do not feel that they are being rude if they eat and leave fairly quickly though, I know my husband does not like to feel like he is imposing on others. He thinks that he is being polite by not staying too long.

I cooked a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and ham. Because there were so many different people and I didn't know likes and dislikes, I made extra side dishes. For example, I made mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, stuffing, broccoli casserole and LOTS of pie.

I can promise that the airman appreciate that you are willing to host them for dinner. They will be polite and I even had one who insisted on helping with dishes. He washed while I dried. Of course, that was 1 out of 8 (LOL), but I did tell them to go watch football.

Thank you for what you are doing. I am always grateful to those that think of my husband when he is away from home.

 

[Rose&Mike]

We adopted three young Marines a couple of years ago for Thanksgiving. They were stationed at a local army base for training. We really enjoyed it. DH was in the Navy, so he could "talk military" with them.

They played basketball, video games, slept some in our recliners. Just hung out. They wanted to go to Meijer at one point. That evening we went bowling before DH and DS took them back to base.

I'd kind of let them set the pace.

I did send them back to base with cookies which they were very exicited about. And later that week sent them all care packages with stuff they had talked about while they were here. We didn't hear from them again, so not sure where they are now, but I know some people end up developing an ongoing relationship with their adoptees.

Enjoy your day. It was really a lot of fun.

 

[LuvOrlando]

That is just so sweet. We don't have a base near-by exactly, but I think it would be nice to offer anyway. Where do you make the offer? Did you call the nearest base and ask for the Commanding Officer's office?

Also, speaking of this, is there still a program to send things to our wonderful men & women overseas for the holidays?

 

[JodyLynC]

Where can I find information on this program? Is it too late to participate?

 

[PatsGirl]

That's a great program. Maybe my son will be one of your guests Last year he was in tech school at Eglin (Florida) and his classmate was married and he invited DS over for T'giving dinner. They are a young couple and this was their first holiday gathering. DS said they were alot of fun and the turkey wasn't dry

DS is now at tech school at Keesler. I'll have to ask him what his plans are and let him know about this program.

Thanks for taking care of our boys

 

[Dax]

When I was a kid and used to go to my grandmothers for Thanksgiving and Christmas, she always hosted 5-10 men and woman from the local Coast Guard training base in Cape May...they were great fun to have around..