This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walmart for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
I am so excited to tell you that Walmart has partnered with Operation Homefront and the Fisher House to support military families all over the nation with their “Holiday Salute to Military Families” program! The focus is to support and honor service members and veterans who work hard to keep our country safe, as well as the military families on the home front. Check it out here Join in our Holiday Salute to Military Families
As many of you know this summer my husband recently returned from a YEAR long deployment! That meant last year he was gone during Thanksgiving, thankfully he was able to take his R&R (2 weeks of leave you get during a year deployment) just in time for our son’s 16th birthday on Christmas Eve as well as Christmas. This was our 2nd time Mr. B has been deployed during Thanksgiving and I want to share with you how my kids and I cope with him being gone for that holiday.
If you know Mr. B then you know he LOVES the holidays, it’s his favorite time of year, so being apart during this time is hard. My kids and I decided that to honor him we would do something special on Thanksgivings without him, something to benefit someone else. So this past year (as well as the previous deployment he was gone on Thanksgiving) we found a local place to go eat Thanksgiving Linner (you know lunch/dinner…we eat Linner a lot, LOL!). Now I’m not talking about some fancy place like a Japanese steakhouse or something like that, I’m talking about somewhere like IHOP or Waffle House. The reason for this is because I know the waiters/waitresses are there working on a holiday that they could be spending with their families, and often because they need the money, not because they think working on Thanksgiving is so much fun.
For us IHOP was open 24/7 despite the holiday so we decided to go there. We eat our Thanksgiving meal, which for me at IHOP is normally pancakes, and then we leave a tip for the waitress. I know, I know, people normally leave a tip but we leave the waitress $50 and it’s a grace gift. She could be the worst waitress in the world and I’d still leave the $50 on Thanksgiving because she may just be having the worst day of her life, we go in believing that whomever we get as a waitress is going to be who needs it. We paid the bill and then went back to the table and waited for her to come back so we could give her the tip (because I prefer to make sure the money actually gets to them!) and she says she would take the money to the front to go pay the bill, I told her that the bill was paid and it was for her. She was shocked, grabbed me and gave me a huge hug, it really made my day for my kids and I to be able to give her something unexpected when she was working while most people were at home with family.
While these non-traditional Thanksgiving Linner’s do not replace Mr. B being home to celebrate with us, it does give us joy knowing that we are setting out to purposefully bless someone else.
I think this is pretty awesome that Walmart is honoring our military hero’s and families! It’s Giving Tuesday today! Want to find out how YOU can help support military families?! Head on over to the Operation Homefront or Fisher House site to see how Walmart is giving back to service members and families, and how you can help too!
Want to show military members that you appreciate them? You can share this post on social media and tag them so they know that you are thinking about them!
Now that I’ve shared what we do on the home front during the holidays, it’s time for you to share! What are some ways that you celebrate when your loved one is deployed during the holidays?
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