Celebrating food – and moms – on Thanksgiving (source: Ann Arbor.com)

Thanksgiving is my mom’s favorite holiday. She keeps lists from years ago about what to make, when to start, and what are “must serves,” even though I suspect she could do all of the work blindfolded by this point.  One of my favorite memories is when I brought my husband (then, new boyfriend) home for his first Dersnah Thanksgiving.  He arrived close to serving time and upon seeing the loaded dining room table exclaimed, “How many people are coming tonight?” Click here to read full story.

Whitby Mom Wants to Fill Soldiers’ Stockings (source: News Durham Region)

About 30 sponsors are still needed to ensure Canadian soldiers “on the outskirts of nowhere” get to celebrate Christmas.  Whitby resident Diane Temple is again running the Stocking for a Soldier campaign, hoping to fill stockings for two platoons of Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan. That’s 79 soldiers and she has sponsors for 49, she says.  She ran the campaign last year when her son Andrew Grieve was stationed at a forward operating base about six hours from Kandahar.  Following his tour, Andrew retired from the forces, she said. Click here to read full story.

Mom has collected 350,000 toys for needy kids (source: Chicago Sun Times)

The way Michelle Maxia sees it, you have two choices when things get tough. “You’re either gonna focus on the problem, or engage in the solution,” says Maxia, of Orland Park. “I am about solutions.” One of her answers to life’s inequities is an Orland Park warehouse filled with new and slightly used toys. In a year and a half, Maxia, 45, has distributed more than 350,000 toys to not-for-profit groups. Those groups gave the toys to thousands of needy children. Puzzles, dolls, video-game systems, plastic kitchen setups — all have paused to be polished and, if needed, repaired on their way from one child’s hands to another’s. Click here to read full story.

Moms launch Web site for educational game rentals (source: Bakersfield.com)

Christy Baker, a stay-at-home mom, liked the idea of buying educational games for her children, but found they were expensive and the children lost interest in them after a while. She did some research to see if there was anyone who rented games for systems such as Leapster and Vtech, but found none.  She thought, Why not me? So she started www.smartyrents.com, a Web site that rents out games geared to children ages nine months to 10 years.With a concept similar to Netflix, Baker and her friend Jennifer Scheidle set up their Web site about a month ago. Click here to read full story.