In October we were contacted by a Gold Star Mom from California inviting us to participate in "Operation Santa...Stuff A Stocking For A Marine".  We forwarded the project to our Brownie Troop from Fishers, Joyce's co-workers at First Place Bank, and decided to send it on to Joyce's brother, Bruce Kabat, who works for Pitney Bowes Management Services at the law firm of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw in Chicago, Illinois.  Our Brownie girls shipped boxes to our son, LCpl Brad Scriff, in Iraq and to LCpl James Oltman who is stationed at Twenty nine Palms, California;  First Place Bank contributed four boxes of stockings and goodies for the Marines;  Joyce shopped for and stuffed 10 Christmas stockings for some special Marines with VMAQ-3 in Al Asad, Iraq; but the most wonderful thing happened in downtown Chicago!  Delivery after delivery kept arriving at Bruce's office!  So much so that he couldn't even GET INTO his office!  He called us with periodic updates and mentioned on more than one occasion how humbling it was for so many people to step forward to make the holidays a little brighter for our Marines spending Christmas so far away from home.  On December 8, 2006 Santa Kabat shipped out a total of 23 boxes of Christmas cheer (each box weighing an average of 35 pounds) to Marines in Al Asad and a unit truly on the frontlines in Ramadi.

Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough, but it is all we have to offer.  We are truly grateful to all those who participated in Operation Santa this year.  A special thank you is sent out to Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw for they generously paid the shipping costs of over $600 to send these boxes overseas.

Let us never forget that our men and women who proudly serve our country in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and National Guard need our support each and every day and not just during the holidays.  God Bless them all and bring them all home safely.