Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family! As the year concludes, I write to express my appreciation for you and for your continued partnership, while I do my best to represent you in Washington. I hope these Christmas holidays provide much-needed rest and time with family and friends. Although this year has continued to prove difficult for many, I hope the struggles have inspired new determination in us to fight for our country.

I think often of Christmas Day in 1776, when George Washington led his men in crossing the Delaware River in an attempt to restore confidence in his leadership and hope in the American Revolution. The British had taken New York City and Washington had lost much of his army and its supplies and equipment while making a forced retreat, leaving his men undernourished, underequipped, and dispirited. On December 1st, the enlisted of about 2,100 of Washington’s men expired, and every one of them left. By all accounts, the American colonies' fight for independence was in great peril. Now left with about 6,000 soldiers who were hungry, poorly equipped, and enduring a painfully cold Christmas Day, Washington sent out orders for his army to assemble in the middle of the night on the frozen banks of the Delaware River. Can you imagine what was going through the minds of many of Washington’s men as they stood on that frozen river bank and snow fell on them? Many of them had to be thinking about the friends who had died in battle or from disease, or about those 2,100 comrades who were sleeping that night in warm beds. After so many losses and so much suffering of their own, they could have easily decided they had done all they could and slipped away in the darkness. 

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