Being a captain in the military is hard, especially to a task force full of muppets that John begrudgingly cares for. He’s deployed a lot, spending weeks or even months away from home. Which was bloody awful in itself, but was even worse when he had a family at home.

A large property is home. Fifty seven acres of land, twenty two of those being forest. The rest is gorgeous fields and meadows that takes a hell of a lot to maintain, but worth it. He owns a decent sized ranch house, not huge but big enough to house his family and more of him and his wife ever felt like expanding.

John loved home, his kids, his wife, their mangy mutt. But he also loved his job, he knew he wouldn’t retire for a while, but he would also never miss any important days. He was always home for his and his wife’s anniversary, any birthdays in the family, all holidays.

He had gotten home last week, every day has been busy since then. Putting up Christmas decorations and lights, chopping down a Christmas tree, and so much shopping and wrapping.

Last night him and the missus had to sneak downstairs, plant the presents, eat the milk and cookies left downstairs without detecting the sleeping kids. Years of practice had made it easy. John had passed out in bed, holding his wife in his arms.

As a military man he’s always been an early riser, but he also greatly valued and loved his sleep. So being woken up at the crack of dawn to a small herd of kids braking open his bedroom door to jump into bed… wasn’t the greatest. But god he loved them too much to care.