My family must have known my plight and sent me my first care packages just before Christmas...
Two whole boxes of really decent stuff... no grandma's hand-knit sweaters or goofy pajamas... whew!
Honest-to-goodness... my favorite things were my homemade "Christmas Tree" by Avery and the Fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls (C'mon, are the blue vanilla ones really considered a fruit?!)
I carried my Christmas presents to the office and opened them while I called home on Christmas night in Iraq... which is Christmas morning on the West Coast. Inside I found xylitol gum and family DVDs... thanks Santa!
Jim's Op-Ed: Being deployed to war-eminent Korea (we get the same hazard pay as Iraq... no kiddin'!) last December makes this my second Christmas away from home... Ugh! You think you've got it tough... I have one more coming... Thank you, Uncle Sam!
Some nice folks from Operation Support Our Troops sent me and my soldiers these really cool boxes of things...
My box came with a handwritten postcard from Ms. Lois Jamison... to whom I promptly wrote a return thank you note... Did you remember my earlier blog? Our post is free coming from Iraq... the ink, paper and envelop is free too. We have no excuse!
And being the ever-vigilant DDS I am... what did I separate and eat first... ?? Oh yeah... I call it Vitamin C! What do U call chocolate??
Speaking of chocolate... Tay is movin' up. Good to see someone climb in this OIF-induced recession... Gee thanks, W! Here's one for the little guy...
Valentines brought a nice card and more chocolate in a small parcel envelop from home... but a little later... just before Easter I got this nice package... Favorite thing? Pez!
I like to pause a moment each day... and say a little prayer for our fighting soldiers around the world and for Pez on earth! 'Cuz Pez just makes ya happy, doesn't it!
MAJ Johnny Stephenson, my OBC and CSH buddy in Radiology, and I got some presents from CPT Wesley Stokes... Puffing on a nice Cuban while reading Super Freakonomics... Wes you know my heart, buddy!
And then just before redeployment... one more and probably my last package of this 2009-10 deployment got delivered yesterday. The Good & Plenty said my family still loves me! Some soldiers need a yellow ribbon but black licorice does it in my book...
