The Patriotic Tree

Greetings to all.  It's me, Maggie.  Today, Cam and I thought we'd start showing you more about the trees -- first up, the Patriotic Tree!  I love this one!  All the ornaments have to do with the US of A, our soldiers, or units Dad served in.  Let's take a look!

Here's what it looks like all lit up!

On the door right there (it's another door to the deck; we never open it) is a small snowman wall-hanging Mom made:

The snowman is wearing a DCU (desert camouflage uniform) scarf and part of the border is also made from a uniform Mom cut up. I'm sure she waited until Dad was done with it. Really.

This is the tree that has the uniform buttons tied to it for ornaments - we showed you those a few days ago.

What else can I ... what?  Oh.  You want to see a picture of me in front of it?  Well ... I'm kind of busy at the ...  Santa's watching?  Oh, FINE!

"Happy now, readers?"

Do you SEE what I have to put up with around here?!? Yes! Exactly. Cam should be in the shot, too. WEARING A SANTA HAT!!!

"I don't really think the hats are so bad, Mags."
"This is so wrong.  This is so very, very wrong!"

OK. So. This is a BDU (battle dress uniform) angel some of the 2nd Infantry Division wives made as gifts for some of the other wives who were there -- in Korea:

Her dress is made from someone's cut up BDUs.  See?  Mom's not the only one who does that.

Here's a sled with the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) patch on it:

That was a Christmas gift Mom received from some of the other 1st ID wives while Dad was deployed on Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

Here's an ornament Mom made:

When she and Dad were in Korea, they had some of the "geographical bachelors" who were serving "up north" with Dad over for dinner at Mom's house on Yongson Army Garrison in Seoul.  She made those for everyone to take back up with them.  The tree is cut up BDUs ...

... as is this one:

She made a mess of those one year and gave them away.

We love this next ornament:

Our dear friend Goose sent that to Zimmie two years ago.

In front of the tree, this Santa sort of watches over the whole thing:

Me and Santa. See how his eyes follow you EVERYWHERE?!?!

Right.  One last shot.  Since he's watching.

Me.  Being REALLY, REALLY good.

I hope you enjoyed seeing our Patriotic Christmas Tree!  Please keep our troops in mind this season, as many of them are serving far from home!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher