Christmas on the USS INGRAHAM

[Matt's Mom/Cathy]

Moms are you ready to start Christmas shopping????

 

Our adoption for October is the USS Ingraham.  There are 201 sailors serving aboard this frigate -

191 males and 10 females (all officers).  As we all know it is very difficult to be away from your family during the holidays so after speaking with our contact we have decided to brighten up these sailors holidays by helping them celebrate Christmas.

 

We can send Christmas decorations such as small trees, battery powered lights and wall decorations.

I would like to see each of them receive a small stocking (6")  filled with candy or small items and a candy cane for Christmas morning in addition to our other packages.  What do you ladies think?

They requested very few things but could use sunscreen and lip balm since the weather is hot where they are deployed.  Microwavable meals would be a big hit with the crew also.  Most of them are into games, movies and sports and could use some new items to pass around.

 

The Captain is onboard with anything that will boost the morale on her ship and they are grateful for the support from home and will appreciate anything we do for them.  They enjoy seeing the smiles on the faces of the sailors when they receive mail and care packages from home.

 

Since this is a small group could we get enough of the small Priority boxes filled so that every sailor onboard would have a box to open for Christmas plus a pillowcase and a Christmas card?

 

Okay moms what fabulous ideas do you have to help the USS Ingraham celebrate Christmas this year?

 

191 Males

10 Females

 

Check in with Nancy on We Stitch Love if you can help out with the pillowcases.

Pillowcase count - females 10 DONE

                              males 191 - we have 191  DONE

Our count as of 10/13

Nancy - stocking for the Captain

Molly - stocking for our POC

Molly - 2 energy drinks for each sailor

Susan - Christmas stories

 

Small Stockings - Total needed 201

      Great job Pam we have enough stockings for everyone on board!

Pam - 200+  MAILED

 

 

Small boxes -  We need 201

                        We have 201!!!!!!!!! 

Molly - 16 plus POC stocking, energy drinks and Pop chips- mailed

Evi - 8 plus decorations  mailed

Kim - 10 plus snacks, suncscreen & lip balm  mailed

Pam (GM Mom) - 24 mailed

Nancy - 8 mailed

Chowchow - 16 plus cards mailed

Pat L - 24  mailed

Susan - 8 mailed

Julie - 8 plus cards & decorations  mailed

Laura - 12  mailed

mominPA - 8

Kat - 14 mailed

mombyheart - Homemade cards mailed

Proud Navy/NYPD - 1 female mailed

Matt's Mom - 9 female plus two boxes of decorations and a gingerbread train kit mailed

Packing Party in San Antonio - 35 mailed

Diane - 10 boxes of treats

I know several of us have bought items to ship but not sure how many small boxes it will work out to be so I will change the numbers as we pack them up.

We have several moms sending blank Christmas cards for the sailors to send to their families and several that will be sending Christmas decorations.

 

The shipping dates will be October 21 - 26 and the address is posted in MAS We Ship Love and mark the boxes "Christmas" or we could write "Don't Open Until Christmas".

[nancy (ian's mom & tanya's mil)]

The Ingraham has gotten more packages!!! Received this wonderful thank you note today:

Dear Nancy,
 
I just received your generous package today and wanted to say THANK YOU!!!
I have already put up the sparkly blue star in my cabin and have the
stocking and adorable monkey on my couch for some holiday cheer.  I took
most of the snacks and have them in a bowl for my Sailors to share when they
come to see me.  I'd been doing that for the first couple of months but my
candy/snack supplies had run dangerously low.  Thank you for helping to
replenish the stock.  I haven't yet taken the items out of the stocking as I
thought I'd save that for a little something to "open" Christmas morning.
 
I was laughing when I saw the socks in the package.  You must be a guardian
angel or some sort of mind reader. :-) I asked my husband to send me some
new socks early in the deployment but he has yet to comply.  You know how
men are... So, needless to say they were well received.  Again, thank you.
 
I was excited and happy to hear your organization will be providing pillow
cases to the crew.  On another deployment (when I was XO), we had a group
send out some homemade quilts and afghans and the Sailors loved them.
Anything like that is a little piece of home and it really improves morale.
I'm all for that.
 
I don't know if you heard or not but INGRAHAM had our first successful drug
interdiction of the deployment in mid-November.  The crew is happy and proud
to be actively working to stop the illicit flow of narcotics in this area.
So, you can rest-assured that we are on duty out here trying to make the
world safer for everyone.
 
Have a truly wonderful and blessed holiday season.  Thank you once again for
your efforts to support the INGRAHAM team.  I know each and every one of my
Sailors appreciates it.  I certainly do.  
 
As a Washington local, if you ever decide you'd like to visit the ship upon
our return to homeport in the spring, please let me know.  I'd be happy to
arrange a VIP tour for you.  
 
All the best and warm regards,
 
Kristin 
 
CDR Kristin  
Commanding Officer
USS INGRAHAM (FFG-61)

[Proud Navy/NYPD Mom (Donna)]

Did she get pretty girly socks??  Or the kind you really need to have to wear?  Hope they were pink, frilly and girly to the max!!  LOL

[Matt's Mom/Cathy]

Did someone mail tshirts in their boxes?  If so are they extra items to hand out to whomever or are they part of the gift boxes?

[diane {Shawns mom}]

That's was ME,,,,T-shirts and the Champion Duofolds...they are like Under Armour.

I mail ten boxes filled with those items -rounded off with lots of sweet treats!!! I did put a note in each box!!!...

 

 

The T-shirts were Hanes Navy Blue, the ones' they were with their uniforms....the medium ones have an "Off" color blue mixed with the Navy!!! I truly hope they received those boxes.....LOTS OF SHIRTS!

[Matt's Mom/Cathy]

Thanks Diane and yes they did receive the shirts in the last delivery.

[diane {Shawns mom}]

Awesome...I did put a letter in each box I sent!

Thanks!

[Proud Navy/NYPD Mom (Donna)]

I was able to collect unused cards to ship to the Ingraham.  In fact, so many I had to use 2 large boxes.  Here is the first thank you.

Momma Donna,

Let me start by saying thank you very much for the cards that you sent.  The sailors are happy and they are going fast.  We needed a little morale booster and tht was the ticket because in these foreign countries the cards are in a different language.  Please let your church and the Bible study group know that we are very appreciative and that they are in our prayers as well.

Thank you again and remember you moms are the ones that keep the morale and happiness of our troops going. It means a lot to a sailor/soldier to have support from back home.  Especially the ones that don't have families.

Take care and keep in touch please.

PS  I am not very good at writing so sorry in advance  (grin).

Your adopted sailor,

Daniel

 

(Of course I will keep in touch!  :) 

[Proud Navy/NYPD Mom (Donna)]

Then, he sent me a copy of the email he sent out to all the areas on the Ingraham:

ING,

I have received over 300+ blank Christmas cards that you can send to family members back home.  They were donated to us from the XXXX group, Norfolk, MA and XXXXX church, Norton, MA.  I only ask that you take what you need and leave some for your fellow shipmates.  Please don't bend, tear or destroy them.  If you would like to send a thank you note to Donna, she is the one that put this together, her email addy is xxxxx.  The cards will be available at the ship's store and in the admin office.

V/r

SHERIFF

Daniel  XXXXXXX

[Proud Navy/NYPD Mom (Donna)]

He also sent a pic of himself - "clowning around" (his words). When I saw the pic I thought that if he told me to leave some for others and not to bend, tear or destroy, I surely would listen!  No wonder they call him 'Sheriff'!!

[Matt's Mom/Cathy]

The Ingraham received 31 of our boxes at their last port visit.  As soon as Daniel gets the time to count everything we will have an idea of what they are still waiting on.

[chowchow]

Wow ladies this is so awesome.  Reading these updates.  I realize now being new I left out something from the packages I sent.  I left a note for instructions, but I did not leave my name (just Navy Mom's) and I did not leave an e-mail address like you all did.  Well it was my first time live and learn I guess.  But thanks ladies for sharing because I was wondering how we found out if they received the packages or not. 

[Susan mom to Niko]

I used to have the same problem.  Now I have a little postcard that I send with each package...  it has the Molly's adopt a Sailor logo on it and explains what our project is about.  Then ends with 'would love to hear from you if you have the opportunity.  Most of all thank you for your service!  Keep safe!' and then my email address. 

I can write a little note on the back of the card directly to the soldier/sailor/marine/coastie/airman that the package is heading to.

The postcards were ordered from Vista print...  they offer you 100 postcards for free every so often... check their web site!