OKAY PEOPLE, LISTEN UP!!

How's that for my impression of a drill sergent? LOL

But serious.... No matter if you celebrate or not, Christmas is coming, quickly! Our guys (and gals) are still in a hostile country, doing what they believe in, but that doesn't make it any easier.
Take it from someone who has been away from family for a while... It a'int what it's cracked up to be!
Sure, you don't have to figure out how to invite everybody to your birthday on 2 different days, so they wont' end up storming out, or who to invite when so they don't feel like they're being an after thought, but, in the scheme of things, isn't it nice that they're around?

Now figure this: You're FAR away from friends and family, being shot at, stalked, always on your guard, not getting enough sleep, the food you eat, you cannot pick, the people you eat with, you cannot pick and on top of that, it's Christmas, and 90 Degrees in the shade...... Would it not be nice to get mail from someone who cared? (NO offense to those who live on the other half of the world, but Christmas has to be COLD and preferably snowy for me! LOL)

I have a couple of suggestions, including links to sites for you to peruse and I REALLY hope you do!

Jan, over at IvyScraps is trying to get postcards from all over to put together in an album, showing our support for the troops.

This site: "Any Soldier"  lets you adopt a soldier, who otherwise would get little or no mail.

The site: Help a Hero to Write Home sends cards to troops, so they can send them home to their family. How special would it be to have handmade - with love - cards to mail them?

Between all of us, we should be able to accomplish some of this, don't you think?
I was, thankfully, set straight about something and I want to pass that on.  When I worked for Cigna, our department adopted a soldier, and each of us picked a week to write to him. None of us ever heard back. I took it as "he got volunteered for the program, but isn't really interested". Jan told me that, even though you may not hear from them, (because of security, time etc reasons) every card and every letter gets read, sometimes daily, sometimes by more than one soldier. It's a little bit of "home" in a hostile world. Can you imagine if there was a care package attached to such a card, or letter? It should be done all year long, but the Holiday Season is extra hard on the "missing" of home.... So what do you think? Worth a little bit of time? I think so!

Ok, getting off the soapbox, but I'll keep you updated if anything news comes up.... Just think about it?

hugs,