Amy's Place wishes everyone at the Foxhole the very Merriest Christmas.
Posted on 12/24/2004 10:10:32 PM PST by snippy_about_it
Merry Christmas from EGC of Southwest Oklahoma.
This will be a rough CHRISTmas for me. I do not look forward to the rest of the day. I spent most of yesterday in tears.
The weather is to bad for my eldest to bring my only grandbaby down here.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, duckie/sw
How about you, SAM, remind you of the old days? Me, 1966 and 1967.
Merry Christmas, everyone. Especially to our people in harm's way.
JohnHuang2 brought the shipbuilders story to FReeperdom with an excerpt a few days ago: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1305671/posts
Snippy gets full credit for finding a version of the story that does not need to be excerpted.
Oops - being paged for present unwrapping...
Merry Christmas!
On this Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on December 25:
1583 Orlando Gibbons English composer (O Clap Your Hands), baptized
1601 Jose Ximenez composer
1624 Angelus Silesius [Johann Scheffler] German mystic (St Seelenlust)
1642 [Sir] Isaac Newton Woolsthorpe Lincolnshire England, physicist/mathematician/astronomer/apple fancier (Laws of Motion and Gravity)
1698 Jacobus Houbraken Dutch engraver/illustrator
1717 Pius VI [Giovanni A Braschi] Italy, Pope (1775-99)
1721 William Collins Chichester England, (Mayor-Chichester)/poet
1750 John "Christmas" Beckwith composer
1763 Claude Chappe French engineer (optical telegraph)
1771 Dorothy Wordsworth
1808 Stephen Cleeg Rowan Commander (Union Navy), died in 1890
1811 Wilhelm E Freiherr von Ketteler German politician/bishop of Mainz
1813 Milledge Luke Bonham (Confederacy) died in 1890
1821 Clara Harlowe Barton Oxford MA, nurse (founder-American Red Cross)
1823 Preston Smith Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), died in 1863
1832 Thomas Alfred Smyth Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1865
1837 Cosima Liszt wife of Austrian composer Richard Wagner
1855 James Galvin pitcher, shut-out every opposing team in 1884
1865 Evangeline Cory Booth Salvation Army general (1904-34)
1876 Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah Karachi, founded Pakistan (1947)/Governor (1947-58)
1878 W Starling Burgess yacht designer (America Cup's Enterprise)
1881 Joseph V McCarthy baseball manager (New York Yankees)
1887 Conrad Hilton hotel mogul (Hilton Hotels)
1891 Kenneth A N Anderson British general (Dunkerk, North Africa)
1893 Ropert L Ripley Santa Rosa CA, cartoonist (Believe It or Not)
1899 Humphrey Bogart New York NY, actor, Here's looking at you, kid (Casablanca)
1903 J Edward Bromberg Hungary, actor (Mark of Zorro, Under 2 Flags)
1906 Clark M Clifford US Secretary of Defense (1968-69)
1906 Lord Lew Grade British TV mogul (ATV)/movie producer (Boys from Brazil)
1907 Cab[ell] Calloway [III] Rochester NY, bandleader (Minnie the Moocher, Jazzball, Blues Brothers)
1910 David Lichine [Lichtenstein] Russian/US dancer (Make Mine Music)
1918 Anwar el-Sadat Egyptian President (1970-81, Nobel 1978)
1931 Carlos Castaneda US, writer/mystic (Eagle's Gift, Fire From Within)
1934 McKinley Mitchell US gospel/singer (The Town I Live In)
1937 O'Kelly Isley Cincinnati OH, singer (Isley Brothers-Twist & Shout)
1943 Ravish Malhotra India cosmonaut (Soyuz T-11 backup)
1945 Noel Redding rocker (The Jimi Hendrix Experience-Purple Haze)
1945 Ken "The Snake" Stabler NFL quarterback (Oakland Raiders, Super Bowl XI)
1946 Jimmy Buffett Mobile AL, singer/songwriter (Margaritaville, Volcano)
1946 Larry Csonka NFL running back (Miami Dolphins, New York Giants)
1948 Barbara Mandrell Houston TX, singer/TV host (Mandrell Sisters)
1954 Steve Wariner Noblesville IN, country singer (Small Town Girl)
1957 Jillie Mack Mrs Tom Selleck/actress (Magnum PI)
1959 Michael P Anderson Plattsburgh NY, major USAF/astronaut (STS 89)
1960 Amy Grant singer (That's What Love Is, Baby Baby)
1976 Yazmin Fiallos Miss Universe-Honduras (1996)
A CHRISTMAS POEM FOR ALL AMERICANS
Unknown
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 you 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, "It's 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 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 you wife and your son."
Then his eyes 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.
Kudos to treeclimber
by Scott M. Ash December 15, 2004 Spc. Koprowski sends a message from Camp Liberty, Kuwait, Dec. 14, during a USO show that featured sportscaster and model Leeann Tweeden, retired NFL quarterback John Elway and comedians Robin Williams and Blake Clark. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard B. Myers introduced guests and thanked several thousand Soldiers who attended. This photo appeared on www.army.mil
Morning DD.
We're socked in with heavy fog but from the looks of it Santa made it through. :-)
Merry Christmas Grzegorz 246.
Morning Aeronaut.
DA-42 under your tree this morning?
Morning alfa6.
Merry Christmas, Snippy and I will also be "in" today. HAve to get the fixtures started.
Morning Snopercod.
Merry Christmas, still waiting on my first cup of coffee.
Morning Just Amy.
Merry Christmas.
Good Morning and Merry Christmas Samwise!
Nah, but I got the hots for that plane. I am trying to get authroization to purchase two when they become available. (Mid '05)
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