Well, it is the day after Thanksgiving and I hope everyone is enjoying the infamous day-after turkey sandwich with lots of mayo and a little salt. I must admit the day after is always my favorite. It seems when you are the cook the food just tastes better the next day.

With 28 days left until Christmas, today starts the Christmas shopping rush. As much as I know there a lot of deals on this day, I usually avoid going out to let the true-blue diehard shoppers have their day.

So now it’s time to plan for the upcoming yuletide festivities. My all time favorite thing to do is to visit Lilacia Park. Our park district decorates the trees, puts up the Puffer Belly train and lights up the park so that it glows a block away. This is the merriest time of the year and Lombard outdoes itself when planning our Christmas celebration.

Mark your calendar for Saturday, Dec. 6. Residents are invited to join in the merriment of downtown Lombard’s 3rd annual Jingle Bell Jubilee. Beginning at 3 p.m., horse-drawn carriage rides throughout the streets of downtown Lombard will be the highlight of the afternoon. But the real high spot for most everyone will be when Santa Claus arrives atop a fire truck at 5:30 p.m. to help our Village President Bill Mueller light the village Christmas tree at St. Charles Road and Main Street.

At 6 p.m., Lilacia Park opens up for Santa and his visitors to enjoy the park, train and cottage. Holiday carols will be sung by the Canterbury Carolers right next to the park at the Helen Plum Library, 110 W. Maple St.

I highly recommend the tour “Ghosts of Christmas Past” at the Victorian Cottage Museum, 23 W. Maple St., offered between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. The warmth of the holidays is evident from the moment you walk through the front door and out the back.

Maple Street Chapel will be ringing in Christmas with a Yuletide Sing-Along from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.   

Remember our soldiers

Operation Support Our Troops is a nonprofit group of people who have had family or friends over in Iraq and Afghanistan that need our help. What they basically do is send care packages overseas to our soldiers all year. With the holidays, they step up production and try to send a package to everyone on their list, which is quite long. They always need your help, either with supplies or a monetary donation.

It takes $20 to send a package out. They have items available to ship, but what they really need is people to sponsor one of the $20 packages. With more 17,000 packages sent so far, they have comforted many soldiers spending the holidays away from home.

For further details, their information number is (630) 971-1150 or check out their Web site www.osotil.org, which explains everything in detail. Below is a list of the 10 most wanted items. Drop off destinations are listed on their Web site.

1. Cold drink mix packets for bottled water (such as Propel, Gatorade and Crystal Lite To Go)
2. Wipes (Unscented please; adult size — sold near Depends aisle)
3. Bags of beef jerky (Troops love this!)
4. Breakfast bars, toaster pastries, small cereal in plastic cups, oatmeal in individual size
5. Foot powder (20 oz or less)
6. Granola bars, Power Bars
7. Canned meat such as tuna (or in a foil packet is nice); chicken or turkey and individual sized mayo packets (sold at Sam’s Club, Costco, etc.) Also lunch-to-go kits of tuna salad.
8. Pringles — tall canister
9. Microwave popcorn
10. Shower bag items — shaving cream, disposable razors, hand lotion (16 oz or smaller), hand sanitizer (12 oz or smaller), body wash (10 oz or smaller) — no bars of soap please.

According to their Web site, their newest project is called “Project Pajama Pants.”

Part of the mission of Operation Support Our Troops-Illinois is to support our wounded heroes. They have been contacted by personnel working in the hospitals in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Landstulh Medical Center in Germany with a special request. Our injured troops come in and their clothing is usually cut off, just like a hospital emergency room here in the U.S. Instead of wearing hospital gowns, they would appreciate drawstring pajama type pants (sizes large and extra large are most in demand).