Go look...

I have seen a few of these photos before but not all of them

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/10/30/photographer-collection-david-guttenfelder-in-afghanistan/

Operation Santa Stockings - the continuing story

News just in from Izzy that the box of Santa Stockings has arrived safely to his base.  No word from Martins 2IC as yet  (I don't have the SSG's contact information - D'oh!) but I'm hopeful their batch will make it through soon.

And credit where credit is due - Vicki (the super-wonderful and massively organised) in California did all the hard work on these - she obtained the stockings and the sweets & cookies & all the extra bits; stuffed  & sent them. Pretty much all I did was supply the aussie bits & pieces and the toasty-warm things ; the name lists (since the troops are the team mates of two of my adopted soldiers) and some of the postal funds.  I think she'll be more wary next time I say "I have an idea"... :)

And now for some more pictures of a few of the things that were sent to our special troops [full contents are classified just in case this list is being monitored by those who are about to receive]

Your standard basics for troops trapped in Icy Climes - toasty toes, hothands and I think some other type of warmer too [it's been months since we started shopping for the project so brain-fuzzies on details will occur]

To the left you can see some of the multitudes of aussie toys that were sent to them. And somewhere under that pile are a batch of single serve Vegemite packs (why yes - we Aussies *do* enjoy sharing our weird national food)

The Teams are both made up of mixed troops so Vicki made sure the girls all got Pink Stockings (the boys Red or Blue ones). Final lists were thankfully sent to us in November with M or F on them averting a near pink-tragedy for one poor soul with a multi-gender-use name.

Vicki added extra sweets and cookies to fill the stockings up.

 

She also included a packet of peppermint candy canes to each box - thinking that the team could share with others on their bases or even hand out to the local children.

Gift tags were then attached to each stocking (note the glitter on them? - she hand applied the sparkles to jazz up the cards)

And finally they were all ready to ship out.

By the end of it - 23 stockings all up - containing a mix of Aussie & American items.  Sure hope the teams find them fun to open come Christmas Day.

Yay!

Ben's back from his family-obligated-trip to Canberra today - maybe I'll manage more than 3 hours of sleep a night once he's home (over-active nerves will be the death of me yet)

Sigh....

I realise that the Universe considers my life one big comedy but does it always have to involve tools into the equation?

*nothing to see here.. move along.. move along... bleeding has stopped*

:(

Mwhahahaha!

Oh that was fun! - even more tinned marsupials despatched to the unwitting.  Sadly no Kangaroos in stock :(

EDITED TO ADD... and another one organised for delivery (at this rate 1000 years from now an archeaologist will unearth one in Iraq and become extremely perplexed  *heh*)

Operation Santa Stockings is a Go!

I'll write more on this later (after my brain has recovered from a day of work frustrations and university re-enrollment dramas)

For now let me just say how amazing Vicki is to have managed to pack all the below in to boxes and lugged them off to her local US postal office. 

They should be received by Izzy & Martin (well actually Martin's 2IC since M's off home for christmas - Yay!) before the 25th and they have been told that they *can* give them out to their teams before Christmas day if anyone really needs an early pick me up

Season's Greetings - and other difficult phrases

I began filling out my Christmas cards today - and you know how you need to write a heart-felt, warming & personal note on each of them?  Yeah... epic failure of brain cells occured.  Filling out each of them I was actually thinking how this person is so super fun or loveable or insane* or goodhearted (sometimes all of the above) and trying to articulate it in to 20 words or less - but the words - they failed me.

So if you happen to receive a card from me and the message is more "Special Needs" rather than "Special Thoughts" just engage your imagination and add in a Hallmark moment of your very own

Posting out starts tomorrow

*unless it's Michael & Shell reading this - and then the sentiment is exactly as I wrote it :)  [and the tag line accurate - after all, how many Nutty Aussies do you actually know? :) ]