If he could have one wish for Christmas, no limits, Brandon Olson would not stuff his stocking with his missing foot.

He would not.

He would not hope for the rest of his right leg back, either.

No.

Nothing for him.

What he would do with a magic wand or a genie or all the tea in China would be to whisk the five-oh-deuce back home. Spc. Olson, from Hazen, is part of a team and that team is in Iraq without him. And that hurts. More than physical pain.

Olson lost his leg just below the knee as the result of an explosion in Mosul, Iraq, Nov. 1. For about a month, he's been recovering at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

He will fly home Monday for 15 days. He can't wait to see his family and friends. It's been two years since he had a Christmas at home. But many of Olson's best friends won't be in Hazen.

They won't even be close.

"If I could have one thing, it would be to have all my boys still over in Iraq to be home with me," Olson said. "Right now this is the hardest time for those guys. A lot of them have families, babies that have just been born and they've never seen."

Olson's 502 Infantry Brigade is part of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. They don't know when they'll be back home.

Olson will be in Hazen for the first time in almost a year Monday. An open house will be held in his honor at 5 p.m. MST Tuesday at the Hazen Golf Course. It's also a belated birthday party for Olson, who celebrated his 21st this summer in Iraq.

Pizza, pop and beer will be served. Anyone who wants to stop out and wish him well is welcome to attend.

"I'm sure it'll be crazy, everybody wants to see him," Olson's mother, Deb Olson, said. "We just found out Monday for sure that he was coming home and thought we gotta do this."

Deb and Doug Olson spent a lot of time with their son when he got to Washington but never saw him walk. He's got a prosthetic limb and spends at least four hours each day learning to do the little things again. Walking. Balance. Going up stairs.

"It's going really well," Brandon Olson said. "I have to remember sometimes when I wake up that my leg isn't there. I try to stand up, and whoa. All these little things you do for so many years you have to learn all over again."

Olson is in an outpatient program now and lives in a hotel a block from the hospital. He doesn't know when he'll get to return home for good.

When he does, he will use the Montgomery G.I. Bill to go to college at a North Dakota school. He'll receive a medical discharge from the Army. He doesn't know yet what he'll go into.

"I plan on using this experience to my benefit," Olson said. "I have so many things that I could do and that I want to do. I need to take a little time to think about it."

One thing Olson knows he will do is fly to Fort Campbell, Ky., whenever it is the 502 comes home. He promised his boys he'd welcome them home.