Christmas time

Today is Christmas day, although being over here in Iraq it pretty much feels like every other day. Now that we've crossed the threshold into our 10th month of duty here in the desert, the routine day to day schedule has turned into a groundhog day type situation: it's the same darn thing, day after day after day. On special occasions (like Christmas) you need to throw a wrench into things in order to make it feel different, more important. Our unit's favorite wrench is a good bar-b-que party. On the evening of 24 December our unit had a Christmas grill out to celebrate the holiday. Here are the pictures to prove it.

Grillzila, breathing fire, ready to devour whatever cut of meat we throw it's way. Awesome.

Soldiers mingling about during the Christmas party. We even had a tree set up, with lights and candy canes and everything. Aren't we festive?
Everyone gathered around the plasma to enjoy holiday classics. Currently playing in the above picture is the outstanding Christmas Vacation. Right after this we watched It's a Wonderful Life. Good times.
Here is my choice cut of meat for the night, a thick and juicy 1.9 pound t-bone beauty just before it's tossed onto Grillzila. Delicious.
Grillzilla brought her A game for the festive event. My steak was cooked to perfection.
SSG Johnson, SFC Kerchal, SGT Kane, SFC Washington and myself, gathered around the table enjoying our food and taking in a holiday classic on the screen.

Close-up shot of your favorite Army man, getting ready to devour half a cow.

The remains of my fierce battle with the t-bone. Notice the high quality fork, sans one blade. The t-bone may have won the battle, but I sure as heck won the war. Terrific.