Friday Fun video -- Santa Meets Sousa

First of all, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED! everyone's holiday stories! Since we're missing having the grandkidlets for Christmas this year, all the memories helped add some joy to our own holiday season! A couple even made me cry. But in a good way. Winners, chosen at random, are Sue Hussein and Yvonne, so if you'll email us your snail mail addresses (link's on the website), and which book you'd like, we'll get those out to you.

Sax Douchett, the hero of the my upcoming The Homecoming, is the black sheep of his family. Not just because he's a former high school bad boy, but he's a Navy SEAL.

Now, you'd think that would be a good thing. And it is. But if you grow up in a family of Marines, well. . .

In The Homecoming, readers will meet Cole Douchett, one of Sax's two Marine brothers, who's engaged to be married. In the still untitled second Shelter Bay book, which I'm working on now, Gabriel St. James is a loner Marine who, in an act of Semper Fi loyalty, has reluctantly arrived in Shelter Bay for Cole's wedding. Since I'm superstitious and must drink my coffee and tea from mugs relating to whatever book I'm working on, these days my mug sports a gorgeous design of a bald eagle and the words Semper Fi and my car mug has a Marine Corps emblem.

Last December, I blogged this LOL video of the Marine Forces Reserve Band's 2008 Santa Meets Sousa tour (which raised a bunch of money for Toys for Tots) I received from a reader, Carolyn Smith. This year I decided it's worth sharing again. Carolyn's son is in the band, though not in this video, and she's justifiably proud of him. Did you know that Marine band members are "REAL" Marines. . . as in they don't just play instruments, but they're also, like every other Marine, trained riflemen? As is my fictional Gabe (who doesn't seem fictional to me!), who served as a war photojournalist in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Carolyn's son was in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm and the whole band at Camp Lejeune was in Iraq for 8 months in 2006. The band's mission is to provide security for Headquarters Battalion. So, thankfully, they shoot better than they plan their song selection. (Just kidding!)

Truly, it's a fun video. Enjoy and merry, merry. Oh, and if you're looking for a Christmas charity to give to this year, check out the Marine Graduation Foundation, which helps families who might not otherwise be able to afford it, to attend their Marines' graduation. Their motto is "So no new Marine stands alone" and they're one of my personal favorite charities. Even if you've already given to other groups this year, the video on their website is definitely worth watching!