I survived! Our church had a special veteran's service and of course, I'm involved somehow.
I'm in charge of the church bulliten board in the lobby, so I collected pictures of all the veterans in our congregation and put photos of them up with what branch they were in and how many years they served. We also had two family members still serving (both are currently in the middle east), so they were added also. Side note- one is my brother, yay Bubba! We love you and miss you!
I also am currently in charge of the banquet/brunch decorations in the multipurpose building (really it's a gym with a/c ;), so I printed out lists again of who served in what branch and a short paragraph of each branch (some were the creeds, some were songs, etc) and a image of an eagle holding a US flag, and put them onto a three sided centerpiece. Each table had a different branch. We had 24 tables (seating 8 people each), so they were all repeated several times. I made sure that there was enough for each veteran to take one that had his name on it home with him.
I had a table with blank Christmas cards for everyone to fill out and I will be slowly mailing those out (160 cards are a lot to lick and address!) to the troops overseas. There were also activity sheets and crayons for the little ones.
I also had one more table with an empty place setting on it sitting next to a flag that the other family member serving in the middle east had sent us. The empty place setting served as a memorial to the soldiers who had lost their lives serving our country. The woman who organized the whole church service (there was tons of special music, reading, slide presentations, recognitions, etc) wanted me to get up and explain about the Christmas cards and the empty table. Well, I started fine. I was talking really fast trying to get through my mini speech about the empty table before I started crying, and I was doing fine until I saw one of our veterans (and a dear sweet family friend) start to tear up. Oh I had to stop and take deep breaths, and by the time I reached the end I couldn't even see my eyes were so full of tears.
It was a very moving day, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the veterans, soldiers and their families that may read this. Without what you have sacrificed our country would not be possible and I hope that everyday you feel the love and encouragement that you deserve.
-Of course I forgot my camera! I'll have to bum some pictures off of someone else and post them as soon as I get them.
I'm in charge of the church bulliten board in the lobby, so I collected pictures of all the veterans in our congregation and put photos of them up with what branch they were in and how many years they served. We also had two family members still serving (both are currently in the middle east), so they were added also. Side note- one is my brother, yay Bubba! We love you and miss you!
I also am currently in charge of the banquet/brunch decorations in the multipurpose building (really it's a gym with a/c ;), so I printed out lists again of who served in what branch and a short paragraph of each branch (some were the creeds, some were songs, etc) and a image of an eagle holding a US flag, and put them onto a three sided centerpiece. Each table had a different branch. We had 24 tables (seating 8 people each), so they were all repeated several times. I made sure that there was enough for each veteran to take one that had his name on it home with him.
I had a table with blank Christmas cards for everyone to fill out and I will be slowly mailing those out (160 cards are a lot to lick and address!) to the troops overseas. There were also activity sheets and crayons for the little ones.
I also had one more table with an empty place setting on it sitting next to a flag that the other family member serving in the middle east had sent us. The empty place setting served as a memorial to the soldiers who had lost their lives serving our country. The woman who organized the whole church service (there was tons of special music, reading, slide presentations, recognitions, etc) wanted me to get up and explain about the Christmas cards and the empty table. Well, I started fine. I was talking really fast trying to get through my mini speech about the empty table before I started crying, and I was doing fine until I saw one of our veterans (and a dear sweet family friend) start to tear up. Oh I had to stop and take deep breaths, and by the time I reached the end I couldn't even see my eyes were so full of tears.
It was a very moving day, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the veterans, soldiers and their families that may read this. Without what you have sacrificed our country would not be possible and I hope that everyday you feel the love and encouragement that you deserve.
-Of course I forgot my camera! I'll have to bum some pictures off of someone else and post them as soon as I get them.
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