Today I received a thank you note from my brother-in-law Geno.  He is currently deployed overseas in the Middle East.  I had sent him some homemade granola to help spice up the grub served in the mess hall, in addition, give him a taste of home.  

It was a great surprise to see this today amongst a dental bill, many christmas advertisements and a christmas card.  I opened it immediately.  He's a funny guy in person, and even funnier in a note!  I cannot pray hard enough for it to be March/April so he can come home and be back with his family. 

I watched an episode of the Little People, Big World tonight because it was about the father of the family risking his life traveling into Baghdad to collect a family that has 3 little people themselves, to bring them to America so they can get the medical treatment they need.  If these 3 little people, and literally little (I think they were all under 7), didnt receive the treatment, they were on the road to paralysis or even worse. 

I am reading this book, A Simple Christmas, by Mike Huckabee.  Its about lessons he's learned over the years about the simplicity of Christmas and the core meaning.  Christmas is about thinking of others before yourself, having patience, sacrificing and embracing.  I know my simple gesture of granola to Geno isnt as grand as the Little People helping the Iraqi family, but its my gesture to Geno letting him know that he is special to us and we CANNOT wait for his return.  Christmas will be one less in physical presence, but in our hearts he is sitting next to us cracking the same jokes as he always does!