Christmas with a five-week-old baby and no husband.
I'm going to be honest about this because the journal Ryan gave me deserves honesty: this was the hardest Christmas of my life. Harder than any childhood Christmas during deployment, because I was a child then and children are resilient in ways they don't understand. I'm an adult now and I understand exactly what I'm enduring, and the understanding makes it worse.
Caleb woke at 2 AM, 4 AM, and 6 AM. I nursed him each time in the rocking chair in the yellow nursery while the two-foot Christmas tree glowed on the kitchen table. The apartment was quiet. The world was quiet. It was just me and a baby and the dark.
Mom called at 8 AM. 'Merry Christmas, Rachel.'
'Merry Christmas, Mom.'
'What are you wearing?'
'Pajamas. And spit-up.'
'Put on something nice. It's Christmas. Even if it's just you and Caleb. Even if nobody sees. Put on something nice and make yourself a plate and sit at the table.'
So I did. I changed out of the spit-up pajamas into clean pajamas (which counts as nice when you have a newborn, and I will fight anyone who disagrees). I heated up Mom's chicken and dumplings from the freezer. I set the table for one. I put Caleb in the bouncer. I ate chicken and dumplings for Christmas lunch and it was warm and good and it tasted like Mom's kitchen and I cried into it because crying into food is the Abernathy family tradition.
Ryan called at noon — midnight his time, Christmas Eve in Okinawa. He sang 'Jingle Bells' to Caleb through the phone. Badly. Off-key. Caleb stared at the phone with the wide, unfocused eyes of a newborn who doesn't understand anything but who heard his father's voice and went still.
'He recognizes your voice,' I said.
'He recognizes my terrible singing?'
'He recognizes YOU.'
Silence. The good kind.
Megan sent a package: a cashmere onesie for Caleb that cost more than our grocery budget for a week. Caleb spit up on it within forty minutes. Megan's investment: decimated by an infant. I love this child.
Dad sent a card with a photo of the garden — dormant, covered in mulch — and the note: 'Growing things for Caleb. Spring is coming.'
Spring IS coming. Ryan is coming. The deployment ends in January. Twenty-two more days.
The chicken and dumplings were perfect. The tree was small. The baby was beautiful. And somewhere in Okinawa, a Marine sang 'Jingle Bells' to his son across an ocean.
Merry Christmas. We survived it. We survive everything.
Mom’s chicken and dumplings didn’t come from a box — it came from a freezer bag of shredded chicken she’d made weeks earlier and tucked away knowing I’d need it. This slow-cooker shredded chicken is that exact foundation: the kind of thing you make in bulk on a quiet afternoon so that on a hard Christmas morning, with a five-week-old in a bouncer and nobody else at the table, you can pull something warm and real out of the freezer and feel like someone is still taking care of you. Make it, freeze it, and remember it’s there.
All Purpose Crockpot Shredded Chicken
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 6–8 hours | Total Time: 6 hours 10 minutes | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs for richer flavor)
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (optional, adds moisture)
Instructions
- Season the chicken. Pat chicken breasts dry with paper towels. Season all sides generously with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley.
- Load the crockpot. Pour chicken broth (and olive oil, if using) into the bottom of the slow cooker. Arrange the seasoned chicken in a single layer on top.
- Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 6–8 hours or HIGH for 3–4 hours, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F and shreds easily with a fork.
- Shred. Transfer chicken to a large bowl or cutting board. Use two forks to shred into pull-apart pieces. Return shredded chicken to the crockpot and stir to coat in the cooking juices.
- Serve or freeze. Use immediately in chicken and dumplings, soups, or casseroles — or divide into 1-cup portions, ladle a spoonful of cooking liquid over each, and freeze in zip-lock bags for up to 3 months. Label with the date.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 185 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 4g | Carbs: 1g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 340mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 144 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
