My 20 year old DS is joining the military early in the new year, he is the first to leave the nest so this will be our families last christmas together. I am looking for some suggestions to make this a Christmas full of memories that he can take with him. Any help would be great.
You could make him a small memory book.
I make mine from spiral bound journals I can pick up inexpensively at dollar stores or Walmart. I cut cardstock the size of the pages, and decorate each page a different color or use interesting paper. Find photos of his childhood and inscribe with your memories of his childhood.
You can also send family members a page and ask them to inscribe their favorite memories of your son from his childhood.
Put these together for a special gift and make sure to save room for lots of photos on Christmas day.
I agree, I'd make a scrapbook for him. There are also programs available that let you put a bunch of pictures on a CD/DVD and put music to them. You could add pictures of his entire childhood and finish with this Christmas. Something like that would be nice too, especially if he has a laptop or portable DVD player he could put it in.
One caution: If you're giving him a scrapbook, memory book, etc. try to give it to him before he leaves rather than mail it to him. Some times they make new recruits open their mail in front of everyone and do things to make fun of them. My boyfriend used to beg me not to send him any care packages until he was through his basic training.
Going into basic training he won't be able to bring much with him besides the necessities. Also keep in mind that he's not leaving forever, just for training right now and you'll see him when that's complete at least for a little bit and once he gets to his duty station it'll be just like a regular job, unless he deploys at some point. And they usually always have block leave around Christmas when he's in his regular unit, so it won't be his last one at home. Coming from someone whose been in the military I would just do all the normal traditions that you usually do, because that's what we remember most and look back on.
