Many Thanks to Our Troops

I may have mentioned a time or two how amazing my employer is – and my team of fellow marketing writers. Our company does provide us paid "volunteer time off" and it just happens that our team is doing two volunteer events.

This week!

This afternoon, we gathered in a meeting room at the Point Brewery and created (and wrote) Christmas cards to the troops for the A Million Thanks program. A Million Thanks provides support and appreciation to our active and veteran military men and women through sending letters and granting betterment of life wishes, as well as providing higher education scholarships to their children.

Their current initiative is the holiday card and letter program. According to their website, all holiday letters for our troops need to be received by November 1 for Thanksgiving letters and December 1 for the winter holidays.

Our team of 10 writers concentrated on Christmas cards and hand-written messages. Give me a paper trimmer, tape runner, and holiday cardstock and I am in my own version of heaven!

I let others write the messages. I just made cards like I was a one-person assembly line! Turns out, every one on the team had a creative streak whether they thought so or not!

I was proud of mine. A few shown here. Sorry they're upside down on the writing end of the table! 

In the end, we crafted and completed more than 75 cards that will be sent to troops far and wide to wish them a happy holiday season!

Interested?

Remember, you don't have to have a large group to do this. But if you want to try a worthy service project with a group, go for it. Here is the link to the A Million Thanks "send a letter" page with the details of what to say, what to do, and where to send. 

As I express my gratitude of the nephews – and brother and uncles – who have served, it solidifies my appreciation of those who are willing to lay their lives on the line for this country. That's who we should be thinking about and thanking during this election season! (In my humble opinion.)

P.S. If you need a teacher or some advice on the card-making, I'm your gal! Message me! 🎄🎅💖♡💙

Merry Brown Christmas

While we had a gorgeous sunset tonight that was sort of a pinkish Christmas red, we could see more brown than Christmas green in our grass. And certainly very little in the makings of a white Christmas! 

Glad we had the pretty ending of the day because it reminded me to snap a photo of the current status of the yard at Christmas. You know. For the scrapbook.

Plus, we didn't do photos this morning. Jim and I opened our stockings and gifts PS (pre-shower) and that's not as cute when we're not little kids. Ha. Anyway, he's got some Cincinnati Reds and golf gear and we both share a couple's membership for next summer at our favorite local golf course. We must have been very good this year!!

For our Christmas morning breakfast, I cooked up some SPAM and eggs – thanks, Secret Santa – and they weren't bad. I'm not sure we'll make it a tradition, but we do have half the can to use up in the next week.

After lunch, we delivered a few gifts, including to son #2 and his girlfriend.

Clay and Becca have four maine coon cats that are huge. I could not lift one up! But they were friendly! Had a short but sweet visit.

They liked the blanket I made them (Just a hint of Vikings colors). And by the time we were home...

had already staked a claim to it! Praying all those crochet stitches hold!

The rest of the day was a relaxing, low-key holiday. Jim visiting an ailing aunt and then it was lots of recliner time for us both. I'm acclimating to Christmas vacation just fine. Thanks for asking.

Oh and since we didn't mail cards to everyone on the planet, here's our holiday greetings for you...

Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and mine!