Canzano: A Christmas note that takes us home

A soldier reaches out from Kosovo.

Washington State’s stadium at a football game. (Photo: Geoff Crimmins)

I received a note this week from a soldier deployed in Kosovo.

What?

You were expecting a Christmas column about the Rose Bowl?

I’ll get to the hoopla in Pasadena soon enough. First, I’d like to introduce you to Christian “Kit” Duplessie, a captain in the Army National Guard. He’s 32, married, and is stationed at Camp Bondsteel, the largest military base in the Balkans.

Duplessie is celebrating Christmas with a couple hundred of his closest Army buddies and foreign soldiers from NATO countries such as Germany, Turkey, and Italy.

This week, the base dining hall served a special meal that featured prime rib, ham, roasted candied yams with marshmallow topping, and assorted pies. They also had a “white elephant” gift exchange and a quiet Christmas party.

The guardsman told me that one of the members of his team dressed up as Santa. Another wore a Grinch costume. A third came dressed as a reindeer.

“Where they got the outfits,” he wrote, “I have no idea.”

Duplessie graduated from Washington State, where he majored in media studies. He worked on campus as a student, helping produce Pac-12 Network and Fox Sports content. He’s on a one-year tour, far from home, missing his wife, Jessica.

She’s back in Idaho, celebrating Christmas without her husband. He sent her some gifts to open. They made plans to FaceTime while she unwraps hers. She’ll save his presents for when he returns home in August.

The soldiers at the base rummaged around the closets early this month and found decorations left behind by others deployed at the base over the years. They put them up and made things feel a little more like Christmas.

“We’d all rather be home for the holidays,” Duplessie told me, “but when you’re with your Army family, you still feel the Christmas spirit and a bit of that magic.”

When I launched this publication in March of 2022, it shifted the dynamic. It put me in a 1-on-1 relationship with readers. It’s just us now, with no interference, no pop-up advertisements, no editorial voices in the background, and nobody telling me in my annual performance review that they’d like more clicks.

I work for you now, and that works for me. I’m grateful for your support. My family relies upon it. I love meeting readers at stadiums, airports, the grocery store, and the gym. This publication has subscribers in 166 countries now, including places such as India, China, Brazil, Pakistan, France, Australia, and Vietnam.

One of the unexpected bonuses has been notes I regularly receive from faraway readers who tell me the publication makes them feel closer to home.

Captain Duplessie wrote: “I wanted to drop this note and thank you for all of your columns. It’s made the last three months go by a bit easier.”

I read those words through a pair of glassy eyes.

Duplessie told me he understands military life. He’s the oldest of seven kids (six boys and a girl). His father was an Apache helicopter pilot who served in Desert Storm.

Duplessie is out there himself now, helping make the world a safer place. He downplayed his role, saying his duties amount to IT and radio support. He works in a “four-man shop” responsible for making sure helicopters can communicate with the ground stations and units via various platforms.

Our families of origin are a powerful force, aren’t they? My dad played professional baseball. I’ve been around stadiums since birth. Like a lot of us, Captain Duplessie is just doing what he’s always known.

“My mom and dad barely had email when dad was deployed,” he wrote.

Thanksgiving came and went for the base in Kosovo. Christmas will do that, too. Duplessie told me that soldiers are buzzing about celebrating the beginning of 2025.

“We are pretty excited because the German unit here is hosting a big New Year’s Eve party next week,” he said, “and they definitely know how to put on a show!”

His notes to me this week were like gifts. I unwrapped them, one sentence at a time. I hope he understands what they meant to me. I’m fascinated by people. I’ve often said I could throw a dart in a stadium and find a story worth telling. Not just the players and coaches — but fans, too.

You, for example.

Every one of you.

My wife and three daughters are waiting in the other room to celebrate Christmas. It’s not lost on me that Duplessie is a world away from his family on this holiday. His correspondence this week served as another reminder of how sports bring us together.

Kosovo shares borders with Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia. But the captain tells me he feels at home reading about the new-world Pac-12 rebuild and Oregon’s run in the College Football Playoff. He also appreciates the photo galleries. He studied the pictures of college football fans, players, and familiar stadiums this season and recognized the scenery.

Duplessie watched Washington State football games all season, streaming them in the wee hours of the morning. The Cougars sometimes kicked off at 1 a.m. in Kosovo and the games ended after 4 a.m. The captain watched every snap.

I asked Duplessie what he missed most from home.

Answer: His wife’s cooking.

“My wife is holding on to the presents for me, and we’ll do a mini-Christmas when I get home this summer,” he wrote, “I have a saying, ‘The occasion is more important than the date.’”

Then, he signed off: “Merry Christmas…”

Talk about gifts.

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