This holiday season as you celebrate friendships new and old and sit by the fire sipping Egg Nog or hot cocoa (or wishing you were), please make a toast of thanks to the troops who stand guard for you. They have held their posts through the entire year and they're ready to stay out a little later so that we may celebrate this holiday season in peace. Those troops, our heroes, will do whatever it takes to get the job is done right, and with confidence that these efforts are worth the price.

This New Year's Eve I challenge you to make a resolution that will really make a difference in your life. Make a resolution that will make you proud from the very first day you try it. Make a resolution that will challenge everyone around you to also make that same resolution...

I challenge you to be an American Patriot. I challenge you to stand your ground and provide a voice for those men and women who are fighting on foreign soil today, for those men and women who have died serving our country, and for those men and women who have returned home to discover that this is only the start of the battle for them. I challenge you to wear that yellow ribbon and the American Flag pin you bought after 9/11 and put away in 2002. I challenge you to replace your torn, weathered American Flag, and vow to replace it again as soon as it begins to fade or tear.

I challenge you to lead the charge in making 2009 the year of the American Patriot.