holiday snail mail

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday...the three "f"s as my friend Sean says... family, food, and ....yes, football. After Thanksgiving comes the rush of Christmas...which, I have to admit, I'm also looking forward to. More family, more food, and yes...more football. In the spirit of the holidays, and just life in general, here is a little idea that a friend of mine passed on to me...

When doing your Christmas cards this year, take one card and send it to this address. If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these wonderful special people who have sacrificed so much would get. When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include the following:

A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington , D.C. 20307-5001

to make it a little more fun...you can always add a lottery ticket!

father of the bride

I loved everything about Price and Kip's wedding. Price was a stunning bride, who was at ease the entire day. When we had to move her reception (thanks to hurricane Hannah) from the tent at her parents' house to the Keswick Hunt Club, she took it all in stride. Her sister, Maggie, designed and made her wedding dress...and her other sister, Caroline, rocked the reception with her rendition of At Last by Etta James. At one point, i thought the floorboards of the hunt club might give in...there was no shortage of dancing or fun had. Below is an article Hugh Wilson, Price's dad, wrote for the Keswick newspaper. I love it. thought you might too...


Hugh Wilson, Father of the Bride remembers

The wedding was in the church where she was an acolyte who carried the cross one Christmas. The reception was in the Hunt club where she went, as a very wicked witch, with her sisters and brother to the Halloween haunted house. The bridesmaids were her fourth grad pals plus her two sisters. Her little brother, Pat, not so little any more, was a groomsmen. Charters and I couldn’t help wondering how the years had just shot by us.

Price was the beautiful bride in the beautiful dress her sister had made for her. Frayser “Kip” White was the handsome groom, himself a local boy – no man – the son of Frayser and Gail, our dear friends.

The Reverend Julie Norton performed the marriage with her usual grace, faith and good cheer. It was a fully Christian wedding, over before the pagans know what had hit them.

Maggie, the frantic dressmaker, fainted in the middle of the ceremony, but as drinking champagne fifteen minutes later at Kinloch Farm. Bob and Janice Aron had provided their magnificent home as a pre- and post- wedding staging area.

Lynn Easton Andrews and her wonderful associates made it all look so easy.

Our friend, Steve Tyrell, flew in from Los Angeles to sing the same song he made so memorable in the movie “Father of the Bride”. It was “The Way You Look Tonight”.

Sister Caroline gave Etta James something to think about when she sang “At Last”.

Then the rock/bluegrass/kickass band, The Gourds, rolling in from Austin, Texas made the old floorboards bend right up until the couple slipped off to Keswick Hall in a shower of sparklers.

At several points during all of this, my wife cried. She was – excepting the bride, of course – the prettiest girl there.


If you're interested...here is their slideshow (again)...compliments of Lynne Brubaker

go go America

so cool!

thank you to all of you who have written letters to james and his marines... they will really appreciate them. keep them coming...

the kids at the Oakland School in Keswick spent the afternoon on veteran's day making cards for james' platoon... thought you might want a sneak peak, as they are going in the post today.... its impossible not to love these kids, these cards, and the sentiments behind them...

go go america...

and just because...

save the date

save the date people! 

December 13th...we're Crawling for a Cause in Charlottesville...

details coming soon......

snail mail

i just got back from an amazing weekend in Charleston... and walked in to find a piece of snail mail, postmarked from Iraq, waiting for me on my bed. it is a letter from one of the marines in James's platoon...he writes, "For me personally, getting letters from back home and stateside help so much. It helps me get though the days, convoys, dust storms, hot days and freezing cold nights. It makes us feel better to know that people like you back home actually do care for us..."  its so real. its so tangible. its so sincere. 

Mail call

It is hard not to be in love with Virginia in the fall (besides the given: barn parties, bonfires, s'mores, apple crisp, apple cider, apples, apples, apples...). I went for a walk last Sunday and couldn't help to think about how lucky I am to have such an amazing city at my fingertips, to live in and to explore.

I wanted to throw this out there for you. Whoever YOU are. The more I think about how lucky I am (in life) the more I appreciate the men and women who have given up their hikes, their Saturdays watching football, their holidays, their personal lives, etc. to represent the US in various states, shapes and forms. My good friend, James, is in Iraq today. This week. This month. For months. He's is the 2nd Lieutenant and leads a proud platoon of 40 men (and one lady!) in their day to day, month to month, missions in Iraq. He is the type of guy who you want on your side, and the good thing is, he'll always be on your side. He makes friends with those who don't have any. He looks out for the other guy. And he always puts the other guy first. He is that type of guy.

Recently I sent a box full of odds and ends for James and his platoon. Included were letters from my friends and family, most of whom, have never met James. We wrote to James, but mostly we wrote to members of his platoon. I just got a letter Monday from him, thanking me for the care package-- but mostly for the letters. James wrote, "The letters were by far the best...you should have seen their smiles. Mail here is an enormous boost to morale, so getting it, even from someone you don't know, is wonderful and goes for miles."

You don't have to know them to write them. You don't have to write your life story, or ask theirs. But a simple "thank you", joke, quote, picture, anything... would be amazing.

So... if you're interested, even the tiniest bit... please email me and I'll give you his address. Or you can send the letters to me, and I'll send them together. My email is dickiemorris@gmail.com

Thank you for reading this, and thank you for for considering James and the amazing group of men and women, who are by his side...by our side.





Note: If you're not comfortable writing... well, Hallmark will do it for you!