What would a military spouse ask Santa for this Christmas? Well lets have a look at a few things that could feature on the list...
A Teleporter
Military families are often posted far away from friends and family so a teleporter would be an awesome present. To be able to just hop in and a second later be in your parents house or your best friends house would be incredible... However I don't think even Santa would be able to create this, so a portal will have to do for now.
An Acronym dictionary
There are so many acronyms used in the military and it can be quite hard to keep up with, so to have a dictionary of all of them would be pretty handy... Especially when your husband or wife comes home and continues to use their 'work chat' which is full of them.
Rank Guide
Similar to above in terms of knowing who your other half is talking about. This would be a great gift for a new military spouse who's new to the military environment.
Magnolia Paint
Now this is something that every single military family can't do without. I mean, nobody wants magnolia paint but it's the colour of all the walls! There's always something that needs touching up or repainting. Especially when you march out of your quarter you'll need to fill all the holes in the walls and then paint over them.
New Curtains
You can almost guarantee that when you move into your new quarter the curtains will be horrible, probably been in the house for 30+ years, and you will no doubt have to replace every single one of them.
Curtain Hooks
You can never have enough curtain hooks in the house! You'll probably find that when it comes to replacing these horrible curtains there won't be enough hooks on the rail. There's usually a large curtain held up by only 4 hooks spaced out really badly.
A swear jar
It can be quite frustrating sometimes living in a military environment. Things you may not be allowed to do or last minute changes that don't make sense. So you may find yourself doing quite a bit of swearing. Why not save some money at the same time and every time you swear, whack some money in the jar.
Picture Hooks
The amount of times you'll move house and the amount of pictures you'll have to re-hang when you get there is ridiculous. Most people put pictures up and leave them up for years and years but we have to take all of ours down every 1-2 years when we move. To top this off we're always acquiring more as we make more memories, so picture hooks are always needed!
Oven Cleaner
This will certainly come in very handy! You'll definitely have to clean your oven when marching out of your house (unless you pay somebody else to do it) but you might also have to clean it before you first use it once moved in.
Spare Chairs
If there's one thing you can guarantee about a military family it's that they love to host and entertain. You may have a last minute get together or you might be hosting a Eurovision party... Whatever it is, it's always good to have a few extra chairs in the garage for you to whip out if needed!
A tool kit
Although you have Amey or Robertsons on stand by for our every need (lol) it's always good to try and fix the smaller things yourself, so a tool kit might come in quite handy.
Also there's all of that furniture which has to be dis-assembled and re-assembled every time you move!
Nice Carpets
It's a pretty rare occurrence to march into a military quarter and be happy with your carpets. It hasn't happened to us yet and I'm not sure it ever will.
Carpet Cleaner
Again when marching out of the quarter you can either pay somebody to clean the carpet for you or you can do it yourself. If you choose to do it yourself a Carpet cleaner is needed.
Light Shades
Just like the curtains and the carpets... You can almost guarantee that the light shades are also going to be horrible or often there are none! So you'll find yourself replacing most of them if not all of them.
A usable loft
For some unknown reason in some SFA you're not allowed to open and use the loft! All of that extra space not being used and could well be needed.
A decent sized garage
Again similar to above, the more storage space the better. It's pretty rubbish when you turn up to your new SFA and find that the garage is really small! A big garage is every military families dream right? Also a garage that is up to standard would be nice, most of our military quarter garages have been substandard but for the first time we actually have a decent one here.
Decent and affordable internet everywhere
As mentioned at the start it can be hard keeping in touch with family and friends when living so far away from them, especially if posted overseas so internet is a must have.
However constantly moving house means constantly changing provider and depending on who you go with, the price and speed will differ. If you're posted to somewhere like the Falkland Islands it will cost you an absolute fortune for pretty slow internet.
NO wait time with Amey or Robertsons
There are always things going wrong in SFA... Leaking fire alarms, ovens breaking, no heating, damp etc etc and people are always on the phone to either Amey or Robertsons trying to get the problem resolved. To be fair to them, both companies are pretty good and they do get the problem solved. It can just take a really long time.
Free Post anywhere
Sometimes when posted overseas there is actually a free post service during the festive period via BFPO if the package is under 2kg. If you're outside of the festive period though BFPO isn't free and sending stuff home may only cost a few pounds but if you're doing this on a weekly or even a daily basis it's going to cost you a lot of money.
Alcohol on tap
Well this one is self explanatory
I hope Santa Clause brings you everything you asked for this year! Have an incredible Christmas wherever you are in the world.