December has been exciting and the month isn't even half finished! I'm in a terrific mood; it could be the fact that I'll be home on leave in less than a month, or that we've completed 7.5 months of our deployment, or that the weather is fabulous. Regardless, I'm not complaining!

Last week, I attended a two-day training conference at Camp Victory here in Baghdad. By pure luck, I was able to stay in the Joint Visitors' Bureau Hotel, which usually houses general officers and their equivalents who visit. It was originally a hunting lodge for Uday and Qusay Hussein and their friends, and is one of the few palaces that was never looted, so much of the furniture is original. It was about as posh as Iraq gets. I'm only including a few pictures of the palace, as Paul the Pig will be writing in the near future and I don't want to completely steal his thunder.

The ceiling in my palatial guest room

I thought this exterior wall was lovely

The JVB was also the site of our actual conference, and overlooks the lake on Camp Victory, to include Al Faw palace, our Corps Headquarters. I was a regular tourist whenever we weren't in class.

This pond was almost peaceful

Another palace on the lake; I'm unsure of its use

The morning sky

Al Faw Palace

My favorite picture - morning at Al Faw

On the last afternoon of the trip, a few colleagues and I ventured inside the Al Faw palace. It was absolutely breathtaking. Built by Saddam Hussein to commemorate the Iraqis' victory over the Persians on the Al Faw peninsula, this palace is one of the best examples of the former dictator's spending habits.

Looking down from the second floor

A third floor view of the chandelier

Marble columns flank the centerpiece

This long, slender chandelier dangles down all three floors of the spiral staircase

When I returned from training, I had an assortment of care packages from family and friends. The first one that I opened was from my wonderful mother-in-law, sent me the most beautiful table-top Christmas tree, complete with decorations and stocking kits. SSG Taber and I had a lot of fun decorating our corner of the office. We're even entering it in a post-wide contest!

Our little tree is perfect, tinsel and all

We're very festive!

The final boxes that I opened were from my mother and the Boyers. My mother and mother-in-law are perfect examples of the phrase "great minds think alike" - they both sent the same tree, but with different decorations! Ben and Suzi sent me a handmade "Countdown to Homecoming" counter, magnetic numbers and all. Adding some ACU-patterned stockings that I found, my roommate and I set up a little Christmas area in our humble home.

Santa visited early!

Even our latrine caught the Christmas spirit

And finally, this morning started with a bang - literally. Just after the Iraqi Ministry of Defense (MoD) released a radio statement declaring that they were in control of the security situation here, a series of rockets hit the Green Zone and the Doura oil refinery. Eight hours later, the giant smoke plume continues to be visible.

No explanation needed

So, in the next two weeks or so, I'll be celebrating my one-year wedding anniversary and Christmas in my home away from home, with fifteen days of leave twinkling on the horizon. Here's to the final days of 2007!