I was doing some shopping for a bear for my daughter on Build-A-Bear, when I discovered they had marine uniforms for them. While I was looking at that uniform and bear, it made me think of all the families that have a family member serving our country elsewhere and that they would not be home for Christmas. Then I thought about the children that would miss the parent away and how the bear could help them get through that difficult time. Since you can load a voice into the bear it seemed appropriate that the missing parent could be heard through the bear any time a family member began to miss them. Then I came across the theme for this contest and it just fell into place that I share the story that I imagined.