Remembering those far away

I have posted before that I recruited some friends (and friends of friends) to help with Operation Baking Gals. We are supporting Brian "Bubba" Parks. Brian is the 2nd youngest of 6 children. He has been married to Nicki for 2 years, and they have a 15-month-old son named Connor. He is a graduate of West Point, and he actually decided not to re-enlist in June of 2007 to make sure he would be home for his wife and new baby. In February 2008, he was relieved of his inactive status and left for Afghanistan in June 2008. They were living in Kentucky (he was previously stationed at Ft. Knox), and his wife and son have since moved back to Rockville, Maryland to be near their families. Bubba's mother died 6 years ago of breast cancer, and his dad still lives in the greater DC area.

I wanted to share some of the results of our sugary work. I have been meaning to post these for a while, but I thought today would be a good day because as we all get together to share in the season, I think we need to take a moment to think about those who can't be with the people they love.

Baker Joy shared this note with her pictures:
Thank you for sending me all the information for the Baking Bombshells Team- I'm so glad I could take part in Round 5 of Operation Baking GALS. I actually baked my goodies this past Saturday morning... it was a wonderful way to start my 21st birthday! :) I wanted to pack and ship all in one day so that my cookies would be as fresh as possible- that put me on a bit of a deadline as I had to get to the post office before 1:00, when they closed. I made it just in time, and sent two batches of cookies: Chewy Molasses Spice and Oatmeal Triple Chocolate Chip. I chose to make the chewy molasses spice cookies because they're kind of homey and reminiscent of all the holiday flavors. I also went with the Oatmeal chocolate chip because they're my mom's favorite, and from a reliable stand-by recipe. I included a handwritten postcard of the Boston skyline (my hometown) with holiday wishes for Bubba and his fellow troops.





Bakern Kim shared this note:
We mailed out our gigantic package... my husband went a little nuts at the store because he too is a West Point alum and he really got into this! Thanks for including us... this was fun... I have a pic of Scott with the big bags of food... holding our letters...I will send you soon.

Baker Karen shared this note:
The mini nut rolls & no bake cookies my 3 yr old daughter Kayla & I made were shipped out. We included a brief note as well. Happy baking!

Baker Suzanne wrote:
We TORE UP the kitchen yesterday making all kinds of cookies. There very well may be flour in some crevices we have yet to find, but had a great time baking up all kinds of goodies from gingerbread men to sugar cookies, snickerdoodles and chocolate crinkles. Here's a few of the pics we managed to catch in between the chaos. And no, I don't do aprons :)







And you can see the results of my work here.