Hello Blue Star Mothers,

Greetings from Ramstein USO and I hope you all had a really wonderful Christmas and New Year’s too.  I am so very, very sorry to be so terribly late to email and thank you for all the AMAZING support you have given us throughout the year and also for all the lovely, awesome Christmas goodies you all sent to us for the service members.  I apologize for not emailing you all sooner; but we have been so very busy and with the current world events.  I cannot thank you all enough for everything you have sent us.  I want you all to know that you brought lots and lots of smiles and thank you from so many  of our service members and patrons.  First, let me tell you how very, very much the Ty stuffed animals have been enjoyed.  We saved some for special occasions too and that has been so awesome to have these.  One such occasion was this.  We had a soldier who was deployed downrange and his wife just had a baby week before last.  I asked him if he would like to take one of your Ty stuffed animals for his baby and his other 2 children (ages 3 and 5) and he was sooo happy about that.  He had been given 2 weeks of leave and was so homesick for his family.  So these gifts just cheered him up SO much.  I took a picture of him with the Ty animals you all sent us.  I told him about you all and he said to say a HUGE THANKS!  It really cheered him up and made his day.  He even emailed when he got home and said his kids loved the animals.  I’ve enclosed his picture.  Thank you all for making him so happy and so many others as well.

We LOVED the Christmas bags with toiletries inside!!  These were so festive and cute and useful.  We saved them especially for Christmas day so those in the pax terminal (where the USO is located) would have something very special for Christmas Day.  I wasn’t working that day but my coworker told me the bags and goodies were a HUGE hit and SO much appreciated by everyone who got on.  Thank you all SO much.  Thank you too so much for all the snacks and food items.  We went through so much food and snacks over the holidays due to the troop movement to go downrange; so your goodies were sooo much appreciated by us and the service members.  They truly appreciated everything and told us so.  And my goodness, the 3 HUGE boxes you all sent were just AMAZING!!!  I unboxed it all and was just amazed at all you sent for the guys and gals, and everything was just so great and useful and enjoyable.  They were truly touched.  I heard lots of comments like:  “they send just what we need;”  “they don’t even know us and send us so much good stuff…isn’t that great?!” and “please thank them for us” and many, many more things they said.  You all truly made a difference in their Christmas.  Thank you all ever, ever so much.

I really am so sorry to be so late to write you all.  I am old and slow and that doesn’t help either!!  haha

Please know how much the service members appreciate all you do for them, for your continued awesome support.  You all are GREAT!!!  I think of that picture you all sent us and all the smiles you all have and then I think of all the smiles you brought to the guys and gals here.  You are are SO GREAT!!!!

I am so sorry I’m only including the one picture.  Some days I intended to take pictures and it just never happened.  With this troop movement going downrange, my plans just didn’t happen many days.  I am so sorry about that.  But your many goodies were truly very much appreciated by the guys and gals.  Thank you for all the WONDERFUL SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN.  

Take good care and we all at Ramtein USO send you all a HUGE Thanks and a wish for a FABULOUS year ahead.

Love, Judy