Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas my dear friends and family. This has definately been a Christmas to remember at our house. This morning at 1:30 we were finally able to put up a small tree and get our presents around it. We brought out a couple of Caleb's nutcrackers from his collection so that we could feel somewhat at home in our new house. We are surrounded by boxes and have so many more to come over to the new house but God has been good. We've been able to be with almost all the family in the last few days and celebrate Christmas. From our house to yours may your New Year be blessed with God's love.

Prayer Request

Please continue to remember our friend and dear brother in Christ, Papaw (John Price). Wayne had the wonderful opportunity with the Seeds of Abraham motorcycle club to participate in a benefit to help Papaw yesterday. He is now home from rehab and is looking much better but continues to have some neurological deficits. His wife and family also need our prayers as they are standing by his side.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!

I received this poem from a friend of mine and honestly it made me stop and think. I know our soldiers are involved in war and I follow some of the stories that come out but I tend to forget the personal side of the soldiers involved. This Christmas as we enjoy the freedom of celebrating Christ birth, try and remember a lonely soldier that helped to defend our country so that we can celebrate. This month say an extra prayer for our soldiers as they are away from their families and all the celebrations of their home. If you get a chance send a card to a recovering soldier to the following address:

A Recovering American Soldier

C/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center

6900 Georgia Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20307-5001

A Different Christmas Poem

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 your 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 "Its 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 Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December," Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers." 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 your wife and your son." Then his eye 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 w e'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."

-Merry Christmas-