It is with a sense of true confliction of emotions that I write today. Jennifer will be home for the holidays and it is an unplanned, but necessary and important trip. We have just been informed that on January 7th of the New Year Jennifer will board a plane and be deployed to Afghanistan. It is the sort of news that you don't want to hear when you have a son or daughter in the military. My conflict comes from the fact that Jennifer is a true soldier and she is anxious and excited to take up her new post and relieve some of the communications soldiers that are in harm's way now. As my dismay at the news lingers, I know that another Father is thrilled to hear that his son or daughter will be returning from Afghanistan.

Jennifer will spend Christmas with us. She flies home on December 24th and returns to Georgia on December 28th to prepare for her departure. It will be a quick turnaround, but (frankly) IF she wasn't coming home, Darla and I would have been on a plane in the new year to see her and spend time with her before she leaves.

As most of you know, Jennifer is a Specialist in the Signal unit of the Army and specializes in communications. She is a fibre optics specialist and can wire a complete telecommunications network from the ground up. In fact, in preparation for this mission, her unit spent a week in the field (which is the vacant land that makes up most of the several thousand acres that is Fort Jackson in Augusta, Georgia). She and her fellow soldiers from the Signal Unit had to wire a complete phone system between the various tents that were set up for the week and then take that communications system down and repack it. My understanding is that she will be working on a base in Afghanistan and completing a new communications center on the base. Her deployment is scheduled to last only three to six months and she will be surrounded by infantry at all times. A Dad can't help but worry though.

I'd like to ask that all of my family include Jennifer in their prayers and ask God to surround her with his loving embrace while she is in hostile territory and guide her on her journey.

Jennifer was very excited and upbeat when she passed the news on to me. I knew something was up because she had called home when I was at work and asked me to call her back and give her my status as a citizen...was I a Canadian citizen, a U.S. citizen or did I have dual citizenship? The US does not recognize dual citizenship, although Canada does, so my answer is different depending upon who is asking the question. I knew that the military was doing a clearance for Jennifer and I called her back and left a message that I had become an Iranian citizen since I'd talked to her last. I figured that would slow her down. In truth, a part of me is excited for her. She has reached the level of a Specialist by being the best at what she does in the military and she is itching to put her knowledge and skills to work. I'm damn proud of her and prepared to see her leave. That is NOT to say that I won't worry about her every day that she is gone, though.

Christmas approaches in it's inexorable way and I look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and I'm especially happy to have Jennifer home this Christmas. I'm sure the hugs will be a little tighter and the conversations a little more focused while she is here.

Darla and I have found the boys a pool table and we have already donated our living room furniture to one of the group homes that Darla works with. The pool table which is a cherrywood standard table with carved legs and a polished wood exterior will fit well in the former living room and now game room. The boys are excited. Darla and I decided to get a new table from a furniture manufacturer, rather than a used table. The quality of this table far surpassed anything we saw on the used market and we will have this professionally delivered and set up, levelled and installed. We are all excited about the addition to the home and, hopefully, the boys will feel comfortable to invite friends over to play pool and hang out.

David has his Mustang back and $2000 later, the transmission is installed and it is running like a well oiled machine. Well, it IS a well oiled machine. He is in seventh heaven having his wheels back.

The holidays bring basketball tournaments aplenty and David's team took third place in an eight team tournament last weekend and will play in another eight team tourney in Rocklin this weekend. David continues to start at small forward for his Varsity team and is getting more into the flow of the game, even scoring the first four baskets of one of the games during last weekend.

That's it until Christmas weekend. I did play golf last weekend in our year-end tournament. Unfortunately, I was at my work Christmas party at my boss' home in Folsom on Friday night until about 1:00 a.m. and felt the effects of a few beers the next morning. I didn't overindulge at all, but Darla does not drink and I generally don't either. I was a bit cottonmouthed and foggy on Saturday and started my round with a skull shot into the water that culminated in a deathly 9 on the par 5 starting hole. I struggled back to a 44-43=87 or a net 75. Unfortunately with my handicap, I post that as an 85. Please do pray for my daughter and God bless each of you.