Beef Jerky Recipies

Serving overseas during the holidays is never easy. Even if the people are nice and everyone in the barracks is trying to make it homey, it's cold comfort when all someone wants is a simple slice of home.

In a war zone -- where the people are not friendly and explicit displays of holiday cheer are forbidden by religious law -- the distance feels all the more like the other side of the world.

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Members of Operation Christmas are making and selling holiday ornaments.Proceeds will go to pay for shipping boxes of items to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ornaments cost $5 each and come in three patterns --- a ribbon wrapped ball, a snowman holding a USA sign and Santa sliding down a chimney grasping an American flag.Esther Kimbell, owner of Jan's Ceramics on Commerce Avenue in Longview, is donating the clay and the kiln for organizers to make the decorations.All items can be personalized.

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The image on the big-screen TV is black and white and a little herky-jerky. My daughter chirps, in 3-year-old delight, "This is my classroom!" And she leads us on a tour of the artwork and each tiny desk in her preschool world.

After that is a mess of tapes in different formats, taken by friends or former sweethearts after my camera was broken beyond repair, all recording important moments in my daughter's life.