 Christmas presents a different feeling when you're deployed to Afghanistan. It's really hard to get in the Christmas spirit. Yes, we need more bags. But certain people go out of their way to bring holiday joy to places where it might be hard to find. Setting up Christmas decorations, you just hear the carols playing in your head. And the spirit is contagious. And every single person who walks around the corner looks and has eyes wide agape at the hallway after the decorations go up and it really puts everybody into the Christmas spirit. This initiative wasn't Captain Wreck Camp's idea. That credit goes to a group in McLean'sboro, Illinois. A lot of the families back in the United States got together and they have a group called Stockings for Sailors to send Christmas stockings forward to sailors that are stationed here in Afghanistan. Stockings for Sailors is just one of many organizations keeping deployed troops in their minds and hearts during the holidays. Programs like this are critical just to keep everybody fully aware of how much the United States public and their families support us. It really does a lot to change the routine here to see the indications of that caring spirit coming back from the people who support us back in the United States. Now just as Presidents rest underneath the tree for weeks at home, these gifts will hang on the walls until it's time to open them. We have a lot of stockings put together by this caring group of people. They're going to get snatched up by the Sailors whose names are on them and then a lot extra of stockings that we've labeled for any service member for the rest of the joint force that are here to come and grab a hold of on Christmas morning. And when that time comes, the hope of Stockings for Sailors is to bring the Christmas spirit to those serving away from home. Air Force Staff Sergeant Mike Larman, Kabul, Afghanistan.