The Tree is in the Mail

First, as for Saddam's outburst yesterday to us all, "Go to Hell!" I say, YOU FIRST.

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Back in July I wrote about the tradition we follow with respect to Christmas trees for the deployed military in our family. It started in 1966 when the Dear Husband was a young Navy pilot deployed to Vietnam and received this tree from his parents.

That was followed in 1998 by a tree sent to the oldest son serving in the U.S. Navy at a Joint Military Task Force in England (sorry no picture.) At last year's Christmas telling of the story of Dad's tree, Noah voiced his acknowledgement that he would be entitled to "his tree" while deployed in support of OIF III.

So back in July we had begun to search online and in stores for the "perfect tree". Then Noah was wounded in that nasty little incident in August and the search for the tree was put on hold. As the time passed into the Fall, Noah's recovery progressed and we could once again focus on the approach of Christmas. We began to think about The Tree again. We knew that Noah had well-earned his deployment tree even if he would be Stateside for Christmas, so we renewed the search for his Deployment Tree.

There are some requirements for The Tree: it must not be too breakable since we hope it will travel with our son for many years. It can not be too big (tough to ship and move around with your possessions) nor too small (what would be the point?) It can not have decorations easily broken or misplaced or that require some high degree of care. It must play music. It's one of those "We'll know it when we see it."

Well, we found it...

Noah, it's on its way to you. Be sure to check the inscription on the bottom. The Tree is in the mail.

Update: This tree is from the San Francisco Music Box Co. This one happens to be the Rotating Victorian Christmas Tree, but they have a number of them... and they'll ship wherever you direct (even APO's!)

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