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Posted on 11/01/2008 12:28:05 AM PDT by JustAmy
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What a fabulous poem!
My holiday company arrived last night, so I won't be able to spend much time here, but I am opening the doors for Amy and wishing you all the very best Thanksgiving.
Jaycee will be bringing her famous cranberry relish.
The only requirement will be hungry tummies, and hugs for everyone.
Cranberry 
Green bean casserole
Sweet potatoes
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Stuffing/Dressing
Hot rolls
Roast Turkey
Apple pie
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
Home made biscuits and sausage links
Those are the actual ones I made last year. :D
and the...
Pumpkin pie!
Oh, thank you so much for posting that wonderful poem, MHG! Every time I read it, my monitor gets all blurry.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Beautiful!
Yes, makes a great eye moistener don’tchaknow! Gets me every time ...
Now you’ve done it! I’m goging into the kitchen and make a pumpkin pie right now! ... Gotta have somehting with tea this evening don’tchaknow.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and all those you love.
Luvie, I was so excited about your biscuits that I forgot to mention the pumpkin pie! What would Thanksgiving be without it? (You bringing whipped cream, too?)
Hee-hee! I DO know! I guess I’ll just buy one (everyone knows
I don’t cook...except for those biscuits! :D)
They are the ones from the old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
with the plaid cover! LOL! I have been making them on holidays
for many years. We did have gravy, too, as you could see. :D
Here's yours...is that enough whipped cream? :D
I make an ‘ok’ biscuit, but they are always squished on one or more sides, from pressing the cutter into the dough. How do you get them so even?
LOL!! (It’s enough, if I get to lick the beaters!)
Well, I use a cutter, but maybe you are leaving the dough too
thick for the cutter. I also don’t work mine but just a minimum
of time, like it suggests in the recipe...so they will rise
more. Those the only things I can suggest. I just thought...
I’d better make sure I have enough flour on hand for tomorrow
morning’s bunch! Yikes!
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