While enjoying your Christmas with family and friends we should all take a few minutes out to thank our brave troops across the globe fighting the good fight this Christmas. Kid Rock is on his way to do just that:
The politically outspoken Kid Rock has decided to spend this holiday season bringing the joy of rock ‘n’ roll to US troops in the Middle East.
The trip, sponsored by Armed Forces Entertainment and America Supports You, will see the Detroit Cowboy perform for military personnel in Kuwait and Iraq.
"This year for Christmas, I wanted to make sure somebody was thanking our troops for their service, no matter what our views are on the current situation in Iraq," Kid Rock said in a statement. "I would be spending Christmas with my family but, in my heart, I know this is the right thing to do–not only for our men and women in service, but also to set an example for my son and send a strong message to the world to be thankful and think of others at Christmas time."
Even the Queen is thanking the troops this Christmas:
I am delighted to have this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas, wherever you are serving.
In Iraq and Afghanistan you continue to make an enormous contribution in helping to rebuild those countries, and in other operational theatres you undertake essential duties with a professionalism which is so highly regarded the world over.
[…]Your courage and loyalty are not lightly taken.
It is a pledge which calls for sacrifice and devotion to duty.
Throughout my life my relationship with the armed forces has been marked by my admiration and deep respect for everything you strive to achieveAnd I know that yours is a job which often calls for great personal risk.
While the Queen and Kid Rock (a sentence I never thought I would type) are trying their best to keep the spirits up of our troops, they are finding ways of doing it themselves:
Mitchell Bell spent last Christmas 7,000 miles from home, at an airbase in Iraq’s Anbar province. The Marine pilot did manage to stay in touch with his family, though, sending a DVD of himself reading Dr. Seuss’s “The Grinch” for his 2 ½-year-old daughter. Thanks to technology, his wife, Teresa, was able to ask the little girl, “Do you want me to read to you tonight, or Daddy?”
The Iraq war is full of contradictions. It’s a high-tech conflict fought against low-tech weapons like sniper rifles and improvised bombs. American troops may sleep in tents or old Iraqi buildings without electricity, but many also have regular access to the Internet, which has become a lifeline to home. Even some of those stationed in the roughest areas can help make family decisions via e-mail, watch videos of their children’s activities or do their banking and holiday shopping online. But there isn’t a gadget that can alleviate the worry for loved ones left behind to face a festive season that includes endless news reports about the relentless rise in violence and death across Iraq. Nor is there anything that can make a yearlong deployment seem shorter. And with about 140,000 troops now in Iraq—and the possibility of more being deployed—this isn’t likely to be the last Christmas in a combat zone for many in the military.
Major Bell, who returned to active duty last year, is a third-generation military man. His grandfather served in World War II and Korea, and his father was a Vietnam vet. He understands just how things have changed over the years for families during wartime: "In my grandfather’s era you had to have a strong wife. If she needed to make a major family decision, that letter she sent could take six months if it got there at all. Then you had my dad in Vietnam calling my mom and it would go through all those ham operators and all you’d get was: ‘I love you, OVER. I love you too honey, OVER.’ In Iraq you can pick up a phone or download pictures. Within minutes you’re in touch."

Thats Major Bell with his Humvee Sleigh.
Badger 6 posted some of his own Christmas eve pictures from Iraq today:

And I received this email and pictures from a reader:
This is RJ, Sgt Jensen. He was in Iraq twice, the last deployment for a year. I’ve known him since he was about 10 years old.[…]I send his platoon a bunch of things over the year. They were my main focus for support. They were on Al Taqqudam (TQ) for the year. Mostly, I kept them in coffee and snacks, socks, things like that. They got mortared all the time. RJ called me one day from there shortly after he’d gotten back from leave. He said they had been mortared all night long. It was daytime when he called and I could hear what he told me was artillery fire going out. So….that’s the setting.Coming up to Christmas, I wanted to send them something different. I figured someone’s wife or Mother would send them a tree and Christmas decorations. Then I saw something in a weekly ad that I knew was just right to send. I figured they might set it up in their chow hall or something. RJ sent me these pictures of where they actually did set it up…..whereupon, I felt the need to remind him I thought he was a nutcase. The thing was lit up! ("aim for the Santa!!!!")
And here he is with the Christmas decoration:
And this soldier, currently in Baghdad, tells us that all those donations we have been giving to groups such as Operation Support Our Troops is doing good work:
We’re waiting for shift change later, when all of us on the command staff will distribute the 450 stockings sent out by Treats for Troops, Operation Shoebox, and Operation Support Our Troops. My link functionality is limited, so you’ll have to Google those. We have been overwhelmed with generosity. And cookies. My, how we’ve been overwhelmed with cookies. If you don’t have any cookies this Christmas it’s because you wonderful people have sent them all to Iraq. And we love them. Don’t stop.
So. My first Christmas away from my family. Their first without Daddy. Last night I taped a few photos of my kids on the wall of my tent. They greeted me this morning. I admit I used to grumble a bit when they’d jump in our bed before sunrise on Saturday mornings. Oh, how I wish for those times now. Enjoy your kids.
We’ve decorated our office with Christmas trees, snowflakes, and candy canes. There’s been a door-decorating contest and Secret Santa or gift exchanges in nearly every section. Christmas is here, even in Iraq, in the midst of war. The helos still rattle their way across the dusty sky, and aircraft still shake the trailer I’m sitting in. Patrols will hit the streets of Baghdad again tomorrow, and the men and women of your all-volunteer military will still answer the call to duty and wonder if today will be their last day alive.
Finally I will end this post with this great message from Damien on his MySpace page:
I am 22 years old now, and it is 8pm Christmas Eve, and I am in Fallujah, Iraq. In the most active province in Iraq. Tomorrow my son will get up, with my beautiful wife, and they will celebrate Christmas. I will be with them in heart and I know they will be with me in the same.
My Christmas wish this year…. I wish my son will understand why his "Daddies" can’t be there, and also to understand how strong he is, and has become from his experiences, that he, and tens of thousands of children of American Military Families endure. I wish for my wife to have all the strength in the world and the ability to hold the home together during the holidays, the strength of being the one our son asks all the questions to, and all the strength needed to hold the tears back in the face of our son when he says "Daddies home. Daddies home?"
To all my family, I LOVE YOU and I appreciate all your support!
Babe, Stay tough, I’LL BE HOME NEXT MONTH, YES!
Dominic, Be Good, Dad will be home soon.
Merry Christmas! And a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! This next year is going to be a good one for sure. I PROMISE!
Merry Christmas all, especially our brave men and women serving this great country in harm’s way.

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