My mommy gave to me………

A snowman squeaky toy!!!!

I’m home from my vacation. The concierge came into my suite this morning to get me ready to go home. I didn’t know that included a bath and a blow dry. I got my nails trimmed and my ears cleaned, had breakfast, got another belly rub, went for a walk and then packed my suitcase. When I got to the lobby, my mommy was waiting for me. I got so excited that I knocked her over and gave her tons of kisses. I had fun at the resort and I’m glad to be home too. I missed my mom and my own bed.

Mom just gave me another present that cousins Miriam, Craig and Hershey gave her for me last night. DREIDEL PAJAMAS! And not just plain dreidel pajamas…..they have my name on them. I’m the coolest kid on the block. Look…..

Uh oh….the PJs are a bit snug. I think they’re Yorkie size. No worries, I can wear them as a bandana.

Mom also showed me another article about her Vets Journey Home weekend. This one is from the Reading Eagle:

Veterans Find Acceptance and Peace of Mind

Becca Y. Gregg

Before a room of supporters at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville on Sunday, Harry Schlegel had a milestone to mark.

“Last night,” he announced, “was the first time I slept in over a year without taking a full dose of my sleeping medication. I took half of the dose.”

To some, it might not sound like much. But for Schlegel, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, it was the first step in healing the pain he’d held onto since a combat injury ended his service in September 1968.

“This weekend gave me piece of mind,” the Reading resident said during a graduation ceremony for the Vets Journey Home, a weekendlong retreat aimed  at putting veterans on the road to emotional healing of their war wounds.

From Friday evening through Sunday, Schlegel and five other Vietnam veterans stayed at the Jesuit Center for therapy and fellowship led by program founder Gene McMahon and other volunteers, both veterans and civilians.

“A lot of vets tell us that they were ready to kill themselves, that this was their last shot,” McMahon of Mount Airy, Md., said of the now   nationwide program, which he began after serving two tours of duty in   Vietnam. “We’ll find out a year later that their whole life has changed.   And it’s not just them that it affects. It’s the ripple effect. It affects their spouses and then their kids.”

For more than 30 years, Larry Menkes carried with him the doubt that he was even a veteran.

“This has been a miraculous weekend for me,”  said the Warminster, Bucks County, resident, a former Merchant Marine who delivered supplies to troops in Vietnam. “As I got older, I started to think maybe I was a veteran and I should stop denying it.”

According to McMahon, for many of the veterans, the program provides the comfort and safety to tell their stories for the first time.

“Then we do what we call some work around that, using different   techniques to help with that (pain) they’ve been feeling, sometimes for   decades,” he said.

His voice shaking and his eyes tearing, Army veteran Bob Fisher of Villas, N.J., said what he would most take away from the weekend was “acceptance from my peers.”

Across the country, McMahon is set to lead upwards of 17 such retreats next year. All are free for veterans to attend, with the program even covering the cost of airfare for some.

“As a young man, I did what I was called to do, and I thank God he   allowed me to do what I had to do and come home honorably,” Army veteran Larry Lattimore of New York City said. “It just blesses my heart to look at young vets and see that they’ve become a better person because of programs like this.”

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You really have to see the photos to appreciate what the program means to the veterans: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=434206 Here’s one photo:

Happy Hanukkah! I’m Pugsley, signing off to go play!