I'm Dreaming of a Wet Christmas

Wow! Merry Christmas everyone. It started raining sometime last night just after midnight and now it is 5 pm and still raining like a champ. There are puddles everywhere and we are finding out that our so called waterproofed tent is not water proof. We spent a long time over the summer trying to figure out a way from water coming in on the floor of the tent and it works for its purpose. What we didn't expect was water seeping in through the wood. Since our wood floor goes outside, it soaks up the water and creates a damp floor because the wood is wet.

It has been a nice holiday though and I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of my kids opening their presents.

Questions from the troops

Rumsfeld visited Mosul today and I'm sure there are people out there that will say that troops were forced to keep their questions positive after the question that came from Kuwait. Well my opinion is that it is the difference between troops that are in Iraq and really knows what it is like and troops in Kuwait who only know what it is like through the media.

One of my favorite questions was "why doesn't the media do more reports are the humanitarian and reconstruction efforts that take place everyday?" That is what I would like to see since I know about many of them personally but have never seen anything about it on the public news channels. I have come to think it is reverse propaganda, which is really sad that a lot of people don't realize the obvious agenda of the media.

Imagine if it were breaking news when ever an American citizen died in a car crash caused by DUI and a huge emphasis was placed on how tragic it was and how each family was effected. The effect would be a public outcry to crack down on drinking and driving. That is what we have about the situation in Iraq. You focus on every death in an intimate way.

My point is not that soldiers shouldn't be honored for their sacrifice, I think it is great the amount of support soldiers receive from Americans. My point is that the true veterans of this war understand the real threat and see the purpose of their sacrifice first hand and would really like to share that with the world; but the press just won't let them. Off my soapbox :)

I have a true love for the Iraqi people and pray that we can accomplish our mission of bringing freedom and a better life to these people.

Little Taste of Hawaii

I received a package today from my Uncle in Hawaii. It contained 3 cans of macadamia nuts covered in garlic and onion. Oh were they good and fattening. I don't really think I have eaten them before, at least not whole and not without a cookie involved. I definately have a lot of holiday snacks to eat, I wish I could share them with my wife though.

Christmas in Iraq

Each day is getting closer and closer to Christmas and it hasn't been to bad. It has been relatively quiet in our area and we just had a cold snap. It gets down to 30 during the night and around 50 during the day. I have received lots of Christmas cards from friends and family and several boxes with holiday goodies and ornaments. Unfortunately I can't display them all because I don't have the room. I have a living and work area that I share with another person that is only 16 ft by 16 ft. We have done a great job setting it up though so it is really comfortable, but it makes you stir crazy after being here a year.

I put up some lighted garland on the front of my tent sent by my parents and we have a little tree to hang the homemade ornaments that I received. It all helps it make it feel a lot more like Christmas which is a pleasure. The greatest Christmas present is just knowing that our replacements will be here soon and we will get to go home.

Family Home Evening - FHEnight.com

Well I finally did it. I have been working more an more on HTML and webpages that I bought a domain and started a website. For the most part it is LDS focused and designed to share family home evening lessons between my extended family, but there are also ideas for family activities and traditions. It's small now but I will do my best to add at least one lesson each month.

As for me, I'm still in Iraq and still healthy and safe. It got a little crazy while we were conducting operations in Falluja, but it has really quieted down since that stopped and has been peaceful in comparison. I still have a couple of months left and am hoping that there will be no extensions involved.