Christmas in Iraq

Although we aren't where we would like to be this year, the Christmas holiday provided a nice break from the mundane this weekend. Like usual, we are always looking for an excuse to get Grillzilla fired up, so we took advantage of the holiday and had a Christmas Eve cookout. We scored big time at the PX, and spent at least $15 each on a big Porterhouse. Mine was 1.5 pounds, which is right in the sweet spot for a holiday steak (see my ribeye post for a quick guide to what size steak you should use for different occasions). Hammer's topped the scale at a whopping 1.9 pounds.

SGT Beans and I in front of our Christmas tree.

Brad and I priming for the big party. I think Brad thinks he is drinking a real beer. I know I do.

SFC Grams from the S4 section (which is the other half of the ALOC along with the S1) working his magic. At one time he had burgers, chicken, pork, and our monster steaks going. Well played SFC Grams, you earned your pay this night.

Me, SGT Beans, and SFC Kerchal sporting our Stetsons. Brent's was a Christmas present from Ma Beans, who had to jump through a lot of hoops to get it ordered, wrapped, and shipped over here in time for Christmas. Check out his blog for the details. In the background is the patio where we watched the Texas game. In case you are curious SFC Whitehill is 12 years old.

No side items required. My steak was magnificent, really can't complain. My wife sent a bottle of Misty's so that goes a long way towards steak enjoyment.
While grilling and eating we had the TV set up for movie time, Christmas Vacation, followed by It's A Wonderful Life. Would you believe that this was the first time I've seen It's A Wonderful Life? Quality flick. Never seen the 10 Commandants either, I'll have to check that one out next year. So after dinner, we watched the movie, and then the Hammer and headed over to Air Force land for a Christmas Eve candlelight service. We sang some carols, heard some Scripture, and were on our way. Next stop was the JMMT for the second run of Christmas mail. Beans and Burnometer had things under control, so we headed back to the JDOC to wait for them to arrive so we could commence the sorting (the guys pick up the mail for the entire Squadron at once and then we put it into piles for the units). Since there are no street lights at Anaconda, we had to pull up a few Humvees so we had some light. We spent about an hour squaring the mail away and then were off to bed to wait up for Santa.

About 2 weeks ago I got a package from a group from Iowa called Operation Mom that had a stocking for each of the guys in our section. Rather than handing them out at the time, I tried to be a little bit sneaky and kept them in my room. I brought them back into the office after the rest of the gang had left and hung them with care. And by hung them with care I mean placed them nicely on everyone's desk. So, the S1 got to roll in Christmas morning and have a little bit of Christmas cheer. Thanks to the group at Op Mom for taking care of us. You are the best!

Beans and the Burnometer with their stockings.

Another really nice gift that we got was from the folks at Messiah Lutheran School. They hand made around 100 Christmas cards and sent them over to us. They even went to the trouble to personalize them and put our names on them. Very well done! The kids are quite creative and really put some time and effort into getting us these cards. Thanks to Mr. Weber for making it happen.

SFC Kerchal and SFC Whitehill's trailer. Photo credit is unfortunately mine, hopefully you get the picture that they put up some lights and a Christmas tree outside.

The ubiquitous PT belt, spoiler of my pictures since 2005.

Christmas day was pretty uneventful. I got to come in a little bit late which was appreciated after staying up late doing the mail and opening presents. We had a nice Christmas lunch with all of the fixings, prime rib, turkey and of course some pecan pie. We hit the gym as usual to work on the guns, as we figured that Jesus probably had some pretty nice pipes from swinging a hammer all day. After that it was phone call time to wish everyone at home a Merry Christmas, and then on to play one of my presents, Madden 2007, where the Colts have finally won a Super Bowl under my tutelage. All in all, the day was about as good as I could have hoped for considering the circumstances. I will definitely cherish next year's Christmas after spending this one on the other side of the globe.