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Mostly I wanted to say that despite all the problems, in the end the big box was filled to the brim. Five boxes of scarf packages were packed in a big box, and the rest of the baggied scarves (with colorful holiday cards and emails printed on holiday decorated paper enclosed with them so the color part of the card/message was showing through the clear plastic of the Ziplock bag)...the rest were layered on top and along one side.
It was pretty exciting that they all barely fit, and the simple packaging idea turned out to look so festive And they looked so wonderful to me.

The big box was strapped multiple times and it went out early Wednesday afternoon by Priority Mail, and should be received at the DOD Depot back East by Monday, the 3rd of December at the very latest.
I insured it for $3200.

It was so heartening to see the mound of festive, Christmas-y packages for the troops with all the emails from all over the country...Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, New York, New Hampshire and so many places in between like Mississippi and Idaho!
I thank you all for an experience only I had, with my husband peering over my shoulder, of reading them all as I was transposing them to a solid page, and seeing them all. It was just so wonderful thinking of how they hopefully will have the same visual impact on the soldiers that they had on me.....that people from ALL over the country cared about them.

I wish the scarves had turned out more professional looking, with rolled edges, rather than machine running stitched hems, which looks serviceabe enough. However, the silk is of fantastic quality, and feels absolutely marvelous.

The five ladies who responded to an ad I put in the local paper took a pitance for their work as they believed in the project, and one lady donated her time outright.
So the donations will help these ladies give a nicer Christmas to their children and grandchildren while they were trying to create a nice one for the troops.

I had clear plastic Ziplock baggies, and put in a finished side out glowing, heavenly to the touch silk scarf, most of which were around 18x48", a BIG, LONG scarf for big, tall men who carry 100 lbs loads. And then I put in a printed acknowledgement of which seamstress did that particular scarf, and an message printed of festive holiday paper bordered with snowmen against a red background, or green holly with red cardinals, or Mickey and Pluto with Holiday lights around them and a big Merry Christmas in script across the top of the page. And then a fair number had a Christmas card instead, and I had to cut some of the cards so they would fit in the smaller baggies, and it all turned into a collage of Christmas when piled in a mound.