Across Southeast Missouri today, people are driving over the river and through the woods to gather around the table with loved ones.

But Sgt. Dustin Rees, his wife, Carly, and their two children, Sammy, 8, and Hunter, 4, won't be moving one inch from their cozy, quiet home off of Hawthorne Road in Cape Girardeau.

"It's just going to be us this year. We're not getting any of the extended family involved until sometime Friday. We're not going anywhere," said Rees.

"We're looking forward to just stopping life for a while, enjoy each other's company and have some good food."

That's because Dustin Rees is just over one week removed from returning home from Iraq, where he spent more than a year.

Rees is a Jackson High School graduate who joined the National Guard in 2004 the day after completing his Marine Corps service.

"I wanted to find another way to serve my country," he said.

In total, his military service has included two tours in Iraq and one in Okinawa, Japan.

A member of the 1140th Engineer Battalion based in Cape Girardeau, he was attached to the 110th Engineer Battalion out of Kansas City while in Iraq.

But he never really expected his service in the National Guard would take him so far away from his family again for such an extended period.

"I'll tell how much I wasn't expecting it; we had been working on this house and I had the whole master bathroom torn out completely. There was no shower, no tub, no toilet seat and I got a phone call saying I was going to [deploy] out of Kansas City."

"So the first several months I was in Iraq they didn't have a bathroom here," he said.

"And he was potty training, imagine that," said Carly Rees of her 4-year-old, Hunter.

But when he got the call, Dustin Rees went without complaints.

"The more time you spend in the military, the more you get used to leaving on short notice," he said.

But holidays are always tough. He's missed more holidays with his family than he cares to count. "Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving," he checked off one by one.

"Valentine's Day," Carly quickly added.

So this Thanksgiving, the Rees family just wants to soak up some much-deserved alone time.

"We -- my wife and kids -- have just been deprived of so much time during the holidays, it almost takes something away from them to get everyone else involved, because it just spreads me too thin. It's nice to just have it be just us this year," said Dustin Rees.

Thanksgiving 2006 is a far cry from the last one he spent at Camp Tallil in southern Iraq. Rees chowed down on mashed potatoes, gravy and all the rest in a mess hall the size of the Osage Community Centre. Polish, Japanese and Italian soldiers also enjoyed the feast. But for Rees it felt far from home.

"It was very different," he said.

Later on in his tour Rees and 40 other soldiers chipped in to install a $7,000-per-month Internet phone system and webcam so they could interact with loved ones. Rees spent Christmas watching from Baghdad as his children opened presents.

The sergeant also has ample reason to be thankful this holiday. Three weeks before the 110th was scheduled to redeploy, one of the armored Humvees in Rees' convoy struck an explosive device, killing two soldiers.

Rees said it was a threat that was always present on patrols in Baghdad.

"Every time you leave the gate you wonder, 'Is there going to be activity?' 'Are you going to have enemy action?' Those kinds of things are always there," he said.

"But you have to have ultimate faith in your training and your equipment."

Around the children Rees doesn't go into any more detail of his missions.

Before he left, he told Sammy he was going to get the bad guys; when he came back all Sammy wanted to do was give him a hug and ask his Dad whether he got them or not.

"At their age, that's pretty much all they need to know," he said.

This Thanksgiving, Carly Rees is thankful for the helping hand with chores around the house.

"I'm just glad I won't have to clean the leaves out of the gutters anymore," she said.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245