CAPE MAY, N.J. (CBS) -- Being in the service is hard not only on families but the soldiers and service members themselves. But some families are "adopting recruits" for the day to give them a piece of home.

Operation Fireside has commenced. Some 340 Coast Guard recruits enduring eight weeks of basic training -- including push-ups and being pushed -- received a Christmas reprieve on Wednesday.

"We used to only send the senior recruits maybe in their sixth or seventh week of training. Today, every recruit that we have right now -- which is about 340 -- will be off base celebrating time with families," Capt. Kathy Folger said.

It's a program older than the recruits themselves at the United States Coast Guard Training Center Cape May.

Starting in 1981, sponsor families began taking in young men and women for Christmas Day.

"We make mistakes we end up sweating so it's nice not to do push-ups for once," Coast Guard Recruit Connor Schwarz said.

"Think it'll be a great time for us and them to relax and get to know the future of the Coast Guard," Devin Jesoniowski said.

This is the first time the Jesonowskis hosted recruits.

They'll play cards, video games, eat dinner and FaceTime their families.

"Especially my dad. Me and him are real close," Schwarz said. "It's been rough not talking to him, but I've been toughing it out."

"Liberty used to just mean going off base. Now liberty means off base with your cellphone," Folger said. "Or even when we have on-base liberty, which is Week 6, that's their treat."

Scott Ellis of Tuckerton, New Jersey, never misses an opportunity to jump in.

"I had to think back how many years -- seven or eight years now," Ellis said.

Years of recruits. Years of full dinner tables. Years of memories.

Ellis' daughter is in the Coast Guard and knows firsthand how hard it is to be without family on Christmas.

"It's harder going through the program, through boot camp. Fo me, going through the academy, it's similar," Kayla Newman said. "To have this day to relax, be able to call your family. For me, it meant a lot."

"We know how important it is for her to get to spend some time with the family and for these gentlemen to come home and get a little bit of home cooking and be able to relax around a holiday is a nice thing to do for them," Ellis said.

It's also the first time the recruits can reach out to their families.

"Calling my dad, my sisters, my mom," Anthony Ruggiero, of Long Valley, New Jersey, said. "I'm going to surprise them where I'm stationed because I'm stationed in New Jersey. So I'm going to surprise them with that."

Getting off cafeteria food is also high on a recruit's priority list.

"Today, we're doing a spiraled ham, mac and cheese," Ellis said.

The recruits are due back around 8 p.m. on Christmas.

For many of them, it's the first time they will have left the base since arriving.