If it helps any, my DH and I have been together 12 years and in those 12 years - he's only had one xmas & new years (BOTH!) off and it was last year!! He's been at DAL for 8 years now...
After a while, you start to get used to the idea that you'll be spending holiday time with your family or friends or on your own.. and you get used to the idea of celebrating before or after...
before you know it, everyday (literally) becomes xmas.. xmas becomes "A day" and most other couples (outside of aviation) just can't understand why xmas is no longer all that important...but you do... you understand that it's about you and him - the dates and days don't matter - as long as you have each other!!
See - everyone out there (points outside) sees a holiday as being, in a sense, sacred to having days off of work and getting together with family and so forth - but what they tend to forget is that there are 350+ other days out there that are not holidays, that are not celebrated and that nobody seems to care about.. it's just the same ol moving on type of deal - whereas i've come to realize that a holiday is just "another" day and that everyday i'm with my dh, whether it's on the phone, on the computer, at home, is sacred.. to the sense of (if this makes any sense) - everyday is a holiday.. everyDAY is a day to be celebrated...
so i tend to not really do much for the holidays - i decorate for xmas and all, but that's a "season" thing..we still go driving around looking at lights, do the dressy dinner party thing etc but I don't really do much for xmas anymore...and I kindof like it that way too (which is a little weird - to even me!).
we don't even really celebrate our birthdays anymore either because he normally can't get off on his birthday (it's right after thanksgiving) and mine's in the middle of summer - so even when it comes to gifts, we don't wait to give them, we just give them and enjoy them...
not everyone is able to do it this way because it's different when children are involved, but i betcha even some of the families with children see/do holidays the same way too - that way, everyone can enjoy and the dh's never feel left out.
make any sense?
one thing i do remember is that it is hard to get accustomed to.. the first few years are the worst because you see all the famillies together having fun, eating too much etc etc...after a while, like everything else, you just become accustomed to it and it's not quite so hard.
as it is, he probably won't have training *on* the holidays but i don't know if he'd be getting a positive space pass to get home and back...anyone else know if training does that for holidays?