He had the biggest grin ever.

A few weeks back, the kids and I got a package together to send the troops for Thanksgiving. It was part of a massive effort headed up by my friend, Michelle, to get Thanksgiving dinner to her husband and the rest of the troops where he is stationed in Afghanistan.

Michelle got some pictures from Joe of the Thanksgiving day effort ...

It really gives you an idea of what roughing it means ... don't you think?

And seeing them all lined up ... taking part in this feast while serving our country ... it just warms my heart to no end.

Thank you so much to Joe for taking time out to do this ...

I cried when I saw it ... and Mason had the biggest grin ever.

Then he said, "Remember how you had to help me make the stars, because I didn't know how?"

And ... "I got to stay up late that night!"

Yes son, you did get to stay up late that night so we could get our package packed and you could finish your drawing. Ahh, the things that kids remember.

Supporting our troops ...

Last week, I posted a plea for your help in supporting our troops. The response that I got was overwhelming ... thank you so much to everyone that asked for the address and has sent food!

A couple days ago I sat Mason down and explained the war to him a little more. We looked at pictures online from Afghanistan and he had a lot of questions ... mostly, "Who is that?" and "What is he doing?"

We talked about soldiers and I also explained to him that many of the soldiers are mommies and daddies that have to leave their families to go fight in the war for our country. I wanted him to understand it on his level, hoping that he would realize that perhaps some of his friends have parents that are deployed.

We talked about the Thanksgiving drive and how we were going to send some fixins to the soldiers so that they could have a nice meal like us.

And off we went to the store ...





We ended up with an assortment of things ...



Mason wanted to draw a picture for the troops to include in the box ...



And then we packed it all up, ready to be shipped ...



The day after we took the box to the post office, Mason asked, "Mommy, when are the Indians going to send us food?"

Sounding confused, I said, "Do you mean the soldiers?"

"Oh yeah, the soldiers", Mason said.

Ha.

I'm not quite sure where he got Indians out of all of that ... or why he thought they would also be sending us food.

*smacks forehead*

I wonder how bad I confused him? It is hard to explain something like a war to a child!

A request from Afghanistan ...

My friend, Michelle, made me aware of a need in Afghanistan for our troops. Her husband, Joe, is currently deployed and he is working hard with a group of guys to make Thanksgiving dinner happen for approximately 200 troops in his area. DynCorp has committed to getting the turkeys for them, however they need some fixings.

So I am wondering if you can help?

Hopefully by having everyone spread the word, they will get enough canned goods to feed everyone. And if they get extra, they will save it for Christmas dinner.

The items they are looking for are: sweet corn, green beans, peas, cranberry sauce and stuffing mix.

If people want to send 1 can, 4 cans, 10 cans or however many ... it will all add up and every little bit will help. If anyone deserves to have their turkey dinner right now, it is our troops.

I plan to involve my kids in this ... what a great learning and giving experience for them.

So what do you say?

Please email me if you would like to help and I will give you the address in which to send the items.