Christmas

We had a good Christmas here.
Good food.
Good company.

One Santa, Many Expressions

One Santa, Many Expressions, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Push his green belly button and be surprised!

Thanks P* for sending me this little guy. He's keeping me entertained!

DFAC on Christmas Eve

DFAC, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

The workers are up late setting up for tomorrow. The grills and tables aren't usually outside like this.

Fuzzy Me

Fuzzy Me, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

What I did on Christmas Eve.

After telling Carol I didn't have anything to do, she suggested taking self-portraits.

{I couldn't get myself in focus.}

Look at what my troop is doing...

I am leaving this camp in 7 days (or so) and I'm leaving this country shortly thereafter.

But one of my soldiers started blogging about this place too!

And if you want to continue to send him packages of the sort you've sent me this year, let me know and I'll send the address (our zip code changed).


The Last Hooah.

For your 'greasy hair'

For your 'greasy hair', originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Packaging says:

Purifying
Greasy Hair

{i giggled like i was in junior high}

Roasting Marshmallows

Roasting Marshmallows, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Periodically we have a bonfire, I mean, burn our classified material.

One guy had marshmallows.

We improvised with some commo wire and skewers!

Them: Selling Stuff

Selling Stuff, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Been while since I posted, and this photo was taken a few weeks ago. I went to the Irbil City Center to do some shopping. These guys are located just outside the Citadel, reportedly the oldest inhabited man-made structure in the world.

"Open on December 5th"

was written on today's envelope.
{I have twenty more envelopes with similar writing!}
and inside were these two little guys.

B* sent me a tabletop Christmas Tree, so up they went!



Lila and Sue are sisters, living in Pennsylvania. I've never, ever met them, yet they have regularly sent me letters and packages and cards all year. The story is that they ran into my friend N* at the post office, got to talking and somehow my name and address was passed to one sister, who then passed it to the other sister.

Anyway, this last mail push, I had a big box from Pennsylvania, and in this big box were 25 envelopes - a little present for each day until Christmas.

I teared up when I realized what it was - the generosity of strangers completely humbles me. I mean, these two women take such time and care to put together something like this for someone they've never met. I know they have more Soldiers on their mailing lists too.

Thank you Lila and Sue!