Soldier's Christmas

It's almost Thanksgiving and I am thankful for so many things. My family will always head my list, but we have been blessed with so many other things that we take for granted like food, clean water, beautiful sunset, freedom.

My sister sent me this Poem and I felt like I should pass it on. We are truly blessed to have these brave men protecting all of us.
At the end, it asks that we pass it on to everyone we know. If you feel like that, please do pass it on.


A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."



PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our
U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these
festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

embarassed

I am so embarrassed. I can not find my own blog. I go to Cynthia's blog, read it, then click on Megan's blog, read it then click on my own blog....but there is nothing to read there. It has been almost a month since I last blogged. Actually a few things have happened during that time.

I have been trained by CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). I would die if anyone actually asked me to use my training. However, a week or two ago, Connie called and said she needed help with a mock disaster. I said, "OK" then showed up expecting to be covered with blood and gore. You see, we were the victims. The local hospital and ambulance team needed victims to stage their own disaster.

My part was to act like I had driven through some chlorine gas. I was to be panicked. It was fun to sneak in the hospital when I thought they were too slow taking care of us. The emergency room was filled with all sorts of victims, including one with his leg cut off. The bloody leg (fake) was lying next to him on the bed. The whole exercise was a nice change of pace in my slow life.

Poverty in the world

I guess today is something called "Blog-Action Day....Poor "Apparently all through the year this organization invites bloggers to make entries on particular subjects."

An internet friend just sent an e-mail to visit her site and read what she had written about poverty. It was very thought provoking. I have listed a link to her website below.
http://ldspaz.blogspot.com/2008/10/ahem-blog-action-day.html

I would like to approach the topic from a different viewpoint. A few years ago, my daughter went to Ethiopia on a medical humanitarian aid trip. It was only ten days or so long, so they didn't save the world. The doctors who went treated all sorts of maladies, many of which probably came back when the team left. When the doctors told the people that they just needed to drink clean water to avoid many of the diseases, they replied that the doctors just didn't understand.
The village water well have been filled in by the Communists many years ago. The whole village was so poor that it couldn't afford to drill another one for clean water. Every day the women would have to walk several miles down to the river to get water in their empty anti-freeze (or other) plastic jugs. The water was full of parasites, which the people then drank and got sick. Even water for gardens and animals had to be hauled back this way. Food consisted of ingera, (sp) a flat pancake type of bread and not much else. House were made of mud and shared with animals. Food cooked inside over fires produced smoke that stayed in the house.
We raised money to send large water filters to the village. They were taken into the country in someones luggage because the government of the country doesn't allow that type of thing. We don't know if they were ever used. A year or two ago, the LDS church dug a well for the people. Sometimes we ask why we help
people in other countries when we have poor here at home. I wondered that myself, until I realized that we are all brothers and sisters and need to help each other. Our government, though not perfect, does give aid the poor in our own countries. In some of these other countries, the government does nothing for the poor and probably even wishes they would cease to exist.
Poverty is sad every where. We need to open our eyes and be a part of the solution.

Extra C and Forever Strong.

I just watched a really good video on you-tube. It wasn't funny or quirky. It was tender and gentle, about the infant son of an internet friend. Her son has Down's Syndrome and she has put together a video about him. Take a look at



I am thinking of adding my picture to my blog. I got a fairly good one as a passport photo. Maybe.....

I saw a good movie last night, too. It didn't have swearing, sex, violence..wait, I take that back. It was a rugby movie and rugby looks like it is seriously violent. the movie was Forever Strong. It was about a guy that does a travel show on the local radio station (really, he does it on our station) but the show was about when he was coaching a rugby team. Actually he still coaches the team. Great show. 3 1/2 stars. I think you will like it.

Moo tagged me and told me to put down six quirky things about myself. This is impossible. There are no quirky things about me. I guess I will just have to make some up.
1. I stay up really late sometimes because if I don't think I get enough done in a day, I don't think I should go to bed. I'm not up doing things, I just don't go to bed.

2. I, too, close my eyes when I shower. I would understand if there was a mirror in the shower but there isn't.

3. When I put jelly on my toast, I only put it on one side in case I don't want it on the other side.

4. When I sit down to eat, I have three books to read, or do crosswords or anything. I don't always take three books when I sit down because some places have way more than three already.

5. I don't have a read good memory so I forget things. But I am a fast learner so when I don't remember something I just hurry and relearn it.

6. I don't like to have my feet covered at night. I actually don't like the sheets even touching me sometimes and will fidget and fidget until everything is perfect.

7. I don't like stupid stuff like cartoons (usually) One exception used to be Pinky and the Brain. And Bullwinkle of course. The Simpsons aren't stupid so I can occassionally (I never spell that word right!) watch it, but it is rude, crude, and impolite so I have to make sure I don't laugh at inappropriate things.

There you go. You wanted 6, but since they aren't true, I gave you seven.
PS I'm not tagging anyone. It is rude crude and impolite
PPS I just read the list after I posted it. When I said I only put jelly on one side of the toast, I didn't mean back and front, I mean the rounded part and the square part.
8. I can't even find my own blog. I have to go through Megan's....I mean Moo's. To get to hers, I have to go the Cynthia's. Hers is posted on our tool bar. She has this really cute little girl we like to see pictures of. We also like her blog. Keeps us up to date.
Please post comments. I like to feel like someone knows that I am here

The Santa Letters book review

The Santa Letters

by Stacy Gooch-Anderson
Sweetwater Books
190 (or so) pages

To purchase go to www.amazon.com and type in title.

Please excuse the weird format. It got messed up when I brought the picture in and I don't have all day to correct it.

Santa Letters. Most Santa letters begin “I’ve been a good little girl. I would like you to bring me......” But these letters were different. They were from Santa. The first one began, “Dear Jensens, I know that this year has been a difficult one for you.......” Santa was so right.

A few years earlier, William Jensen had joked about dying young. When his wife Emma became sullen and told him not to even joke about that, he hugged her and said, “Hey, I was only kidding. You know that neither heaven nor earth could keep me away from you and the kids.”

“Do you promise? Promise you’ll always be here for us?” Emma asked.

“...even if some mystical force did try to separate us. I promise you somehow, someway, I’d find a way to let you know that I wasn’t far off.”

It was not some mystical force that separated them, but a traffic accident. Emma was left to raise their four young children alone.
Now it was Christmas time and McKenna was asking hard questions.

“Mama, when will Daddy be home for Christmas?” Emma froze... It took a moment before she could face her daughter.
“Why would you ask that, sweetie?”
“Because in my dream, he said he’d be here with us.”

Daddy wouldn’t be home for Christmas. Emma didn’t think Santa would even be there for Christmas.
But Santa had other ideas. The first letter arrived on December 13. Santa had been watching them very closely. “...as Christmas season has grown closer, I’ve also noticed that there is sadness, a burden that has become too heavy to bear on your own. And so as I’ve watched over you while checking in to see that you’ve remained “nice,” I decided that rather than the traditional gifts of toys and “stuff,” I wanted to give you a Christmas to savor. One that would help you remember what the true gifts of the season are.”
Santa was watching through the big picture window as the family read the words and tried to guess who had written them. He didn’t hear Mc Kenna say, “Duh, Mom. It’s from Santa. See, it says so right there.” But he saw the excitement in her eyes. He turned away from the scene, pulling his cap down over his brow, and walked slowly off whistling “Silent Night.”

When I read this story, my first thought was “I’ll have to buy this one for Mom.” My mother loved Christmas stories and I think this is one she would have added to her permanent collection. But Mom is gone and her Christmas books are split between her children.
The Santa Letters will become a Christmas classic in LDS homes. It is being marketed nationwide and is sure to become a best seller. Readers will relate to the way Stacy has captured the grief of this little family and found a way to turn it around. The family, especially the mother, has understandably been under the shadow of sorrow for too long and needs desperately to find its way out. Santa helps them step outside of themselves and into the sunshine. He helps Emma understand the man responsible for her husband’s death so that she may let go of her anguish.

The Santa Letters were based on Stacy’s own experiences. She lost her father to cancer in 2004 and her mother battled it until her death in 2008. In between, Stacy found out that two of her sons had been sexually abused. Her world crashing down about her with burning questions about whether all she had been taught was wrong, she knew that she must decide whether to abandon trust, honesty and faith and bring out her own brand of justice.
She looked at herself in the mirror one day and decided that if she wanted her sons to grow up in the type of environment she wanted for them, then she must set the example.
Thousands of dollars were spent on therapists and lawyers and left very little for Christmas that year. But Stacy knew that with all they had already been through, the children did not need Christmas ruined, too. So she came up with her “Santa letters” project helping her family come “ to understand that one would never find Christmas under the tree unless they could first find it in their hearts.”
The forgiveness at the end of the story becomes much more poignant knowing the forgiveness that Stacy herself faced in her own life.
The Santa Letters lets us see into our own difficulties and gives us direction into finding hope.
Good luck to Stacy. I think she has a winner.

See more about the author and her book on http://www.thesantaletters.org Check out the media kit section. But turn down the sound!
For some reason, my blog messed up when I tried to put in links to the book cover and amazon. If you go to amazon.com you can see the cover and purchase the book.

The Santa Letters by Stacy Gooch-Anderson
Sweetwater Books
To purchase: Go to www.amazon.com and type in the title.

Santa Letters. Most Santa letters begin “I’ve been a good little girl. I would like you to bring me......” But these letters were different. They were from Santa. The first one began, “Dear Jensens, I know that this year has been a difficult one for you.......” Santa was so right.

A few years earlier, William Jensen had joked about dying young. When his wife Emma became sullen and told him not to even joke about that, he hugged her and said, “Hey, I was only kidding. You know that neither heaven nor earth could keep me away from you and the kids.”

“Do you promise? Promise you’ll always be here for us?” Emma asked.

“...even if some mystical force did try to separate us. I promise you somehow, someway, I’d find a way to let you know that I wasn’t far off.”

It was not some mystical force that separated them, but a traffic accident. Emma was left to raise their four young children alone.
Now it was Christmas time and McKenna was asking hard questions.

“Mama, when will Daddy be home for Christmas?” Emma froze... It took a moment before she could face her daughter.
“Why would you ask that, sweetie?”
“Because in my dream, he said he’d be here with us.”

Daddy wouldn’t be home for Christmas. Emma didn’t think Santa would even be there for Christmas.
But Santa had other ideas. The first letter arrived on December 13. Santa had been watching them very closely. “...as Christmas season has grown closer, I’ve also noticed that there is sadness, a burden that has become too heavy to bear on your own. And so as I’ve watched over you while checking in to see that you’ve remained “nice,” I decided that rather than the traditional gifts of toys and “stuff,” I wanted to give you a Christmas to savor. One that would help you remember what the true gifts of the season are.”
Santa was watching through the big picture window as the family read the words and tried to guess who had written them. He didn’t hear Mc Kenna say, “Duh, Mom. It’s from Santa. See, it says so right there.” But he saw the excitement in her eyes. He turned away from the scene, pulling his cap down over his brow, and walked slowly off whistling “Silent Night.”

When I read this story, my first thought was “I’ll have to buy this one for Mom.” My mother loved Christmas stories and I think this is one she would have added to her permanent collection. But Mom is gone and her Christmas books are split between her children.
The Santa Letters will become a Christmas classic in LDS homes. It is being marketed nationwide and is sure to become a best seller. Readers will relate to the way Stacy has captured the grief of this little family and found a way to turn it around. The family, especially the mother, has understandably been under the shadow of sorrow for too long and needs desperately to find its way out. Santa helps them step outside of themselves and into the sunshine. He helps Emma understand the man responsible for her husband’s death so that she may let go of her anguish.

The Santa Letters were based on Stacy’s own experiences. She lost her father to cancer in 2004 and her mother battled it until her death in 2008. In between, Stacy found out that two of her sons had been sexually abused. Her world crashing down about her with burning questions about whether all she had been taught was wrong, she knew that she must decide whether to abandon trust, honesty and faith and bring out her own brand of justice.
She looked at herself in the mirror one day and decided that if she wanted her sons to grow up in the type of environment she wanted for them, then she must set the example.
Thousands of dollars were spent on therapists and lawyers and left very little for Christmas that year. But Stacy knew that with all they had already been through, the children did not need Christmas ruined, too. So she came up with her “Santa letters” project helping her family come “ to understand that one would never find Christmas under the tree unless they could first find it in their hearts.”
The forgiveness at the end of the story becomes much more poignant knowing the forgiveness that Stacy herself faced in her own life.
The Santa Letters lets us see into our own difficulties and gives us direction into finding hope.
Good luck to Stacy. I think she has a winner.

See more about the author and her book on http://www.thesantaletters.org Check out the media kit section. But turn down the sound!

OK, I know this is cheating, but I am copying one of Elizabeth's e-mails about words here. Then I can direct other word lovers to this blog. Thanks Elizabeth.

Subject: For all you lexiophiles (Lover of words)

1. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired.

2. What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway)

3. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana

4. A backward poet writes inverse.

5. In democracy it's your vote that count's; in feudalism it's your
count that votes.

6. She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but broke it off.

7. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

8. Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat.

9. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.

10. Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.

11. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

12. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.

13. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum
Blownapart.

14. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

15. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under.

16. He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.

17. Every calendar's days are numbered.

18. A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.

19. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

20. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.

21. A plateau is a high form of flattery.

22. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium
at large.

23. Acupuncture is a jab well done.

24. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.

25. Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.

26. When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair she thought she'd
dye.