The Cubbage family's Christmas card was created with the help of Hero’s Angels.

There is no place like home for the holidays, but for many serving in the United States military “home” has to come to them — however they can get it.

“It’s interesting being away from home — especially for the holidays,” said Tech Sgt. Audra Cubbage, a Venango Township resident and a member of the 911th Airlift Wing. “I’ve seen all the girls’ Christmas shows and everything through FaceTime. I had to watch them decorate the Christmas tree through FaceTime. Just, definitely, weird.”

Cubbage has been on stateside deployment since early October 2022. Her deployment is expected to end in April.

“It’s kind of been an emotional roller coaster,” she said. “I’m so close to home and yet so far away.”

The Cubbage family poses before Audra’s deployment.

Her family keeps in close contact with her though, despite the distance.

“She can call and FaceTime whenever she wants — there’s no restrictions with that, except for when she’s working,” her husband, Michael Cubbage said. “The girls FaceTime her whenever they’re sad.”

The couple’s daughters, Meredith and Madalynn, regularly video call their mother in the evenings. The family makes time for each other whenever they can.

“If I’m working, they’ll just kind of text back and forth,” said Audra. “Madalynn is the youngest and she’s not too affected, but Meredith cries a lot.”

Fortunately, the family is permitted to visit Audra once a month, which allowed them to bring ‘home’ to her this Christmas.

“We were very lucky,” said Michael. “I took the girls, and we visited her for seven days. They loved it. It’s almost no different from home, because we’re all together, so it doesn’t really matter where we open presents. Everyone’s all together.”

Michael shipped the family’s gifts to his wife before visiting. It included a number of gifts donated by Hero’s Angels — a local nonprofit organization that provides care packages to military families in appreciation for their service.

“Their organization actually bought the girls some Christmas gifts, because they wanted to make this Christmas extra special,” Audra said. “There was a possibility that they weren’t going to come for Christmas — with all the unknowns in the world, I could leave tomorrow.”

The organization also gifted the family an extra surprise.

“They reached out and asked if they could do our Christmas card,” Audra said.

Michael Cubbage and his daughters ice skate during their Christmas visit to his wife, Audra.

The family spent the holiday making the most of their physical time together.

“We do things together, but sometimes we’re all in the same room doing different things,” Audra said. “Whereas when they’re here, I want them to do things with me and be with me and put your tablets away — I won’t get to physically hug you for months.”

After a week of hugs, ice skating and snow-tubing, the family parted ways.

“It always feels like we’re starting over again — the same emotions as the day I left,” Audra said. “It’s like, ‘see you soon,’ but not soon enough.”

The Cochran family Christmas card.

Sgt. Dakota Cochran and Lena Cochran of Chicora celebrated the birth of their son, Jameson, 16 months ago; Dakota Cochran was deployed seven months later.

“It’s been a little tough,” he said. “He was seven months old when I left, so I had to experience a lot of his ‘firsts’ through pictures, FaceTime or video.”

Dakota Cochran’s deployment did not allow him to come home this holiday season, but his wife and Jameson did everything they could to bring Christmas to him.

“We made it a point to FaceTime Christmas morning to ‘open presents together’ since we couldn’t physically be together,” said Lena Cochran. “This was especially nice for Dakota because he was able to watch Jameson open presents.”

His wife even sent him a surprise.

“Since Dakota wasn’t able to be home for Christmastime, I made him his favorite cookies and sent them to him to have,” she said.

The Cochrans regularly communicate and spend time together virtually, but the distance still takes its toll.

“Although I have loved getting to spend time with Jameson, it really stinks knowing that Dakota has missed a lot of milestones and time,” Lena said. “A lot of happy and exciting moments are bittersweet since he is not home to share them with us.”

In spite of that, the Cochrans make every moment they do have count.

“One thing I learned from this experience is that you never really realize how much you take for granted getting to spend time with someone until they’re not there to spend time with anymore,” Lena said.