OT: For your viewing pleasure...

[Guest guest]

The Beautiful Lady and her handsome hubby in this ( and Lowell) are dear friends of mine, she is my "daughter" and I love her dearly! Akiba *wiping away a proud tear* ... I now bring before you a proposition - Marshmallows For Peace!! No, I haven't lost my mind, I can't find it to lose it, but Lowell and I got on the news today and it is for the most AWESOME reason!!! I wrote an email to a Freecycle group, asking for people's unwanted cards, and could they sign them please, for my son, Rick, and his buddies overseas in Afghanistan. I got at least 175 cards! During many a conversation with these wonderful card givers, I mentioned something Sam, his wife, had said to me, how they like to toast marshmallows with the locals that help them, interpreters and the like, and how the Afghani's are enchanted with the marshmallows. She also told me he can't keep enough of them. So the conversation with one lady kinda went "well we should teach them to make s'mores!" but I told her I couldn't afford the chocolate. And then I said, "wouldn't it be neat if we could settle wars by toasting marshmallows instead of shooting each other?" Well, voila! "Marshmallows For Peace" was born! My husband kept telling me I should write to our local TV station and tell them my idea, but I was, "oh yeah, like they care." Well, apparently they did! A really neat reporter thought it was such a cool idea and we stayed in touch. But something else was developing during my foray into marshmallow land. A parent of a kindergartner at Berkeley Heights Elementary School, sburg WV, asked her daughter's teacher if she could have the class make a few cards for me. Unknown to me OR to her, this teacher started asking ALL the teachers to make stuff! First I found out on Monday that it was four kindergarten classes, mind blowing even then, and then yesterday I found out the most awesome thing I had ever experienced...they had ALL made stuff!!! Every. Single. Child. in the school, K-3rd grade! Cards out the ears, "sleds" made with small boxes and candy canes, other small boxes full of candy - "Santa coming down the chimney" I think, doves made out of paper plates, and bags and bags of candy. Yesterday when we found that out, Lowell and I just sat and cried! Well, the news lady and us went to the school this morning, they gathered all the kids in the front hall and "presented" them to us. Lowell cried on camera but they edited that out. To top it off, the owner of an educational toy shop donated, of all things, a marshmallow shooting gun! (hehehe!), and a game that I can't begin to describe, but Lowell says it's addicting. FYE donated a whole box of DVD's and T-Shirts, a day care had their kids make cards and neat little hands on sticks that say "High for for what you do", and the local VFW has consented to be the drop off point for the marshmallows! They signed gobs of cards, too! I mean who better to sign them than those what already walked in their boots, right? This is going to be my best Christmas ever, I think! For the video of the day go to: http://your4state.com/content/fulltext/?cid=43991 You can see the video there. That handsome man is my sweetie pie, of course! The other lady they interview is the parent who started the ball rolling, quite unintentionally. In the most reverent, humbled state of mind, I bid you all a Merry Christmas, Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and anything else someone wants to celebrate at this time of year. We're busy celebrating the child-like wonder present in all of us. Lowell and ________________________________________________________________________________________________________Due to budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been shut off until further notice..... MGMT