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Perhaps the first thought on your mind for the upcoming New Year is, “Which bars and pubs are we going to hit up?” But then you stopped and thought of what will be missing this year. One of your best friends was shipped out on a tour of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Deep down you know the parties just won’t be the same without him. You wish there was something you could do to let him know you were thinking of him just now. The holidays are often the most difficult time for US soldiers and their families, since Christmas and New Years are typically a time of togetherness. But don’t despair because there are many ways you can make a difference.

Over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve holidays, many Americans like to send care packages as a show of support for our troops. The United Service Organizations Inc. is delivering care packages to US troops around the world for a $25 donation.

The packages include a prepaid phone card, sunscreen, travel sized toiletries, a disposable camera and a message from you. For more information visit www.usocares.org. Operation Gratitude also ships packages containing toiletries, food, entertainment gifts and personal letters to troops in the Middle East.

Visit www.opgratitude.com for more information. Lastly, you can visit www.treatsfortroops.com to donate themed packages or individual items from dozens of online gift shops.

New Year’s Eve holidays are sometimes celebrated with the allowance of a couple beers on base and games of poker. These New Year traditions help the soldiers feel a little less homesick, but it’s hard to deny the pain of being away from one’s family over the holidays.

Whether it’s cards, care packages, letters or text messages — these gestures mean a lot when troops are stranded in faraway lands.

To read more Sending Care Packages For New Year’s Eve Holidays

As the website says, “At Barbeques Galore, our focus is on grills. Not grills, lumber, bathroom fixtures, ‘O’ rings, PVC piping and random shifts in the garden center. Just grills. It’s been that way for 25 years and it’s not going to change anytime soon.

If you enjoy the smell of smoked sausage in the morning, or critiquing a friend’s barbecuing techniques, then you’re in the right place.” There are over 40 retail outlets in the United States, making this retailer the world’s largest specialty supplier of barbecues grills and accessories.

There are many reasons to visit the Barbeques Galore website (www.bbqgalore.com). In addition to listing detailed information on the latest stone barbecues, portable barbecues and island barbecues, you can also get cooking tips and recipes.

Learn how to make celebrity chef items like Big Bob Gibson Chicken Breasts, Bad Byron’s Butt Rub Wings, Steven Raichlen’s Embarrassingly Easy Barbecued Chicken Breasts, Pappy’s Beer Marinade Chicken or Wing-Time’s Buffalo Wings. You can purchase gourmet cooking accessories like oil, salt, flavored wood chips, charcoal briquettes, rubs, sauces, marinades and cookbooks directly from the site as well. 

Whether you’re looking to pay $400 or $4,000 for your next grill, you can find it at Barbeques Galore. It can be difficult to find a grill that won’t rust or that won’t flare up. Even harder to find is an appropriate level of customer service, where damaged parts can be quickly and efficiently replaced if need be.

It’s nice to find a specialty shop that focuses on barbecues grills but also offers the extras, with recipes, cooking tips, cooking classes, innovations and the warranty too.

To read more Finding Information On Barbeques Galore Online

Holiday gifts seem to fade in and out of style each year, making it difficult to keep track of what’s hot and what’s not. While there are some timeless gifts like watches, diamonds or fragrances, the gifts most sought after time and time again are gadgets and consumer electronics.

The good news is that these items have come down in price quite a bit and there are no real items that are over-inflated or extremely competitive, like the Xbox 360 was last year. You’ll find a variety of Christmas gifts from digital cameras to laptops that are reasonably priced and desirable.

Even if you’ve been with someone for years and years, finding holiday gifts for a spouse or long-term partner can be difficult. While a thoughtful, personalized Christmas present is always preferred, there are some gifts that just can’t fail. For that special lady on your list, a Movado watch is a timeless gift that functions as a piece of jewelry, a symbol of your enduring love and a functional item.

Girls also like gadgets just as much as guys, so something like the Canon PowerShot series camera, the Apple iPod Touch or a Garmin auto GPS system are always cool gifts. If your lover is a merry baker, then every woman deep down craves a KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer.

Women also love a thoughtfully planned trip, whether it is a cruise or a gift certificate for www.bedandbreakfast.com. A day at the spa gift certificate and show tickets are also big winners for the high-powered, successful woman in your life. 

If you’re looking for holiday gifts for young children, then try to find something that encourages new interests and discoveries. For the little reader, www.mosnose.com has a book called “Mo Smells Red,” which contains a neat push-and-sniff feature that kids will love! Also, www.frogtowncentral.com has a musical book called “One Night In Frogtown.”

At www.frecklebox.com, you can have books personalized for your little one, with their name inserted as the character. For music lovers, visit www.spinmaster.com to see some of Yo Gabba Gabba’s dancing fuzzy monster toys, including: Dance Time Brobee, Gab ‘n Sing TooDee and Muno’s Groovin’ Guitar. Leap Frog’s Learn & Groove Musical Table is perfect for kids ages 6 months - 3 years. Little artists will love the Doodle Mat, while toddlers and older kids alike will enjoy Crayola’s Color Wonder Magic Light Brush.

Crayola Beginnings TaDoodles Scribble & Sing Art Station is another fulfilling game for those 18 months and up. There are a number of gifts for little ones this Christmas season, so happy shopping!

To read more Finding Holiday Gifts Online

A great way to shop for Mothers Day is on sites like www.gifts.com, which assembles listings from hundreds of online shops to help you comparison shop and find the best gifts for mother.

In recent years, surveys have identified that pampering spa days, either at a spa or with luxury products at home, are what moms crave most to rinse away their cares and rejuvenate their spirits. You can get flowers for Mothers Day like everyone else, but why not treat her to something special?

Another option for Mothers Day is to bring the spa home by creating a Mothers Day gift basket full of luxurious spa-quality products that mom would never spend on herself. At www.thymes.com, you’ll find twenty “Everyday Essentials” products ranging from a $17 face polish to $18 multi-action foot cream.

Since moms are usually on their feet all day long while cooking, cleaning and working, their feet could use the most pampering. Their $45 Foot Care Kit includes a restorative Epsom salt foot soak, a pumice stone and walnut shell foot scrub and a moisturizing, foot lotion exfoliate. 

While some moms crave the tranquility of a spa, they don’t want you to forget about them altogether. Even if you live far away, be sure to send something for Mothers Day in your absence, and don’t forget to call! “Even if they send me a card or flowers,

I still want a phone call, so I can hear their voices,” says mom Liz Lazarro of Tampa, Florida. “I guess it’s the really personal and sentimental stuff that means the most to me on Mother’s Day.” If you don’t think your mom has saved those cheesy gifts for Mothers Day you made in second grade, then guess again!

To read more Shopping For Mothers Day Gifts Online

If you’re up for a good vintage craft project, then you may want to create your own Happy Mothers Day greeting card.  If you don’t have the time or the artistic know-how, then you may consider one of the many terrific e-card sites out there instead.

At www.ojolie.com/ecards_mother_day.php, you’ll find a number of artistic, animated Happy Mothers Day greeting cards. If you’ve ever seen the movies “Waking Life” or “A Scanner Darkly,” then you’ll understand what it looks like to overlay art overtop a real photo or video.

Choose from adorable bears, puppies, cats, fawns, penguins and butterflies or fresh flower designs set to soothing music. To send a Mothers Day card, you must first create a membership, which costs $10 per year but allows you to send unlimited cards. Currently, there are 52 to choose from and there is not a single cheesy design in the bunch.

Choosing the right Mothers Day cards can take time. Some people prefer to go to smaller sites like Ojolie or JibJab, which provide a handful of high-quality Mothersday cards, while other people prefer to sift through larger collections at American Greetings or Blue Mountain.

Either way, it sure beats awkwardly standing in the card aisle at a store, chuckling under your breath and desperately hunting for the matching envelope! The great thing about saying Happy Mothers Day with an e-card is that she’ll receive a full multimedia package, with music and animation, but she’ll also get a custom personalized message from you.

Besides, now mom can save her cards online, rather than in that overflowing box of items she’s had since you were in kindergarten!

To read more Creating Your Happy Mothers Day Cards Online

The best Mother Day gifts don’t have to be purchased from a jewelry store, a florist shop or an expensive spa. In fact, you can create meaningful Mothers Day crafts or perform much-needed household chores to show that you recognize and appreciate all she does for you.

Often in surveys, mothers will admit their #1 wish isn’t a diamond necklace or a new car, but rather that you won’t forget! Impress her this year by planning something thoughtful and moving, without breaking the bank.

The greatest Mother Day gifts are those of donating your time, your effort and truly giving of yourself, while expecting nothing in return. It may just be easier to grab that Mothers Day card and flowers from the store, but if you want to show mom you really appreciate her, then a homemade coupon booklet of services is a clever idea.

If there are young children still at home, then you can always give the gift of babysitting for a few hours to give her time for a spa treatment or grocery shopping run, as well as an over-night babysitting to give her a break. Perhaps she can visit a bed and breakfast or take a road trip.

Cooking is another one of those practical coupons, which will give mom a chance to relax, even if it’s just spaghetti. If she loves to cook, then perhaps she’d appreciate the opportunity to “show you how it’s done” and spend some time together. You may also include a coupon for a car wash, wax, vacuuming and interior cleaning.

You may not have a ton of money for Mother Day gifts this year, but you can definitely put together something nice regardless. Instead of choosing the $80 designer bouquet ordered online and delivered by a local florist, you can make a trip to the local nursery and hand-pick garden flowers that will last longer and bloom for years to come!

Instead of lining up like cattle at an extremely busy Mothers Day brunch, you can whip up some strawberry-banana pancakes with whipped cream and serve her breakfast in bed! You can plan a picnic if it’s a warm sunny day and suggest a walk in the park or rent a movie to watch together. Often the best Mothers Day present is your thoughtfulness.

To read more Surprise Your Mum With Your Mother Day Gifts

As you hold the flashlight beneath your chin, eerily illuminating your face, you glance around the semi-circle of kids holding onto marshmallows and sticks over the camp fire, and some are intently staring at you with wide eyes, others looking around at their friends for support.

Telling ghost stories is one of the oldest pastimes in the world; a way of exorcising our anxieties and deepest fears through a cathartic tale. If you’re looking for another ghost story to tell around a campfire, then here are some suggestions for all different ages and scare levels.

If you want to get your adult fix of ghostly stories this Halloween, then you’ll get chills reading “The Shining” by the master of macabre, Stephen King. “Books of Blood” by Clive Barker offers a collection of short stories that will get you in the mood for Halloween horror.

Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories are timeless classics that will never lose their appeal, causing shivers to creep down your spine and your heart beat to rise. Also recommended are “The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton,” “Dagon and Other Macabre Tales” by HP Lovecraft, “Cold Hand In Mine: Strange Stories” by Robert Aickman and “Ghost Story” by Peter Straub.

For some people, ghostly stories aren’t enough. Now there is a whole cultural phenomenon surrounding the idea of ghost hunters, as seen on the TV show by the same name. Some avid paranormal enthusiasts use books of ghost stories as launching points for ghost hunting expeditions of their own.

They’ll visit Alcatraz, Amityville, The Winchester House, Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery, the Lemp Mansion, the Viscilla Ax Murder House, the Old Slave House on Hickory Hill, Bobby Mackey’s Music World, Myrtles Plantation and Gettysburg.

To read more Ghost Stories For A Halloween Night