Gifts for soldiers

Soldiers serving in far-off lands say there is little that brightens a day more than hearing from folks at home. With cell phones and the Internet, keeping in contact has become technologically easier. But it's the special remembrances that mean so much.

This is why so many individuals, groups and organizations make a special effort each year in the weeks before Christmas to make sure soldiers get packages from home.

It's no easy task to organize a large-scale effort to send gifts to soldiers, but each year thousands of military men and women are remembered with items from home that mean so much to them.

For all those who make the effort to make a soldier's holiday merrier and brighter. thanks for all that you do. Your reward is the smile on the face of a man or woman in uniform who gets a special package from home.