Are you near a air base? They can help you. Minot is real good and alot of the people in Minot send stuff all the time to the military. If you cannot find the answers, I will try to get your answers. Your customs forms I think are at the PO, and they should be able to answer what you can ship or not. Do they have APO box? Also their might be stores in Grand Forks (if you are near there) that will ship for you.
You might watch the weight, and send one magazine and more later.
Marie whose DD works at MAFB

Nope Marie, I am at least 2 to 3 hour drive away from both GF and Minot. Yes there is a APO and some letters and numbers behind it in the address. I will ship from the PO. I think I will go there Monday and talk to them, they are only open one hour on Saturday's and closed now. The flat rate box ships for $11.95 so I'd like to stuff it full!

All I know is you can't send anything chocolate. It won't make it there for some reason.

You could check the web for ideas. I would think sugar type cookies without the frosting would be good. I've been told they get a lot of toiletries so that may not be a good idea. Maybe a good book if he reads at all? I would think he'd have some down time every now and then.

I konw they can't have alcohol but I have known of some who have sent alcohol disguised. Personally, I'd be too chicken to do it but I do know that some people do this.

How about some type of hand held type game with lots of extra batteries?

If you have to declare what you have in it, be creative in your wording so he can't really guess what's in it. For example for a shirt you could put apparal (sp?)

If you go to PO Monday just pick up a customs form--they helped me with my first one--LOL--very easy- As far as listing everything, NO, I usually just said candy & cookies--Pack it as full as you can (20 lbs, I think) I taped the ends shut, but you CAN'T use duct tape--My baking is horrible, so I always send Oreos & bubble wrap them--
Heres a list of what I sent for Thanksgiving---
Cookies, gum, beef jerkys, water balls, Pringle tater chips, powdered drinks, candy bars & about 30 Tootsie Roll pops--The suckers really go over big!

My GS said he takes a few things from the box & then puts the rest on a share table!! LOL

I can't remember everything else I sent (old age)

Tell your nephew thank you from me! If all goes as planned, my GS sdhould be home for good the wk before Christmas! Boy, are we all excited!

Donna (^_^)

I wondered about a hand held game. I have no clue what he has or doesn't have over there (he's been there since May)and guess I need to email my niece again.LOL
I know he loves hunting,cars and gun magazines so they will be sent for sure.

Donna I knew you'd sent pkgs and I am so glad you replied! I also wondered about Slim Jims or beef Jerky. I *will* make sure to find Tootsie Pops and do the jerky!
Dumb question here, what are water balls? LOL

I am sorta thinking of making cut out cookies, caramel popcorn, I'd love to make the soft chocolate chip cookies. I thought Jessica told me its starting to cool off over there, whatever cool off is!

What a great Christmas for your family Donna!! I know its going to be absolute heaven to have him home once again!! I'm happy for you all!

This is a great website to send soldiers packages. The site talks about what you can and cannot send and how to ship packages. There are letters from soldiers and you can see what they ask for and need.

http://anysoldier.com/

Gum, especially the sugar-free kinds. It helps cut down on cavities and stuff when the soldiers are not able to brush their teeth and they can share it with the kids them meet.

Something I always did for my son in Iraq was I used our newspaper to pack front page & sports page Also sent pacs of playing cards & card games....Sandy

Connie, yep, can't wait to get him home! Water balls, GS has a pool at his base & I thought they'd have some fun with the water balls--they're just squishy balls--LOL However, he told me that he only got to the pool one time!

Janie, funny about the troops not being able to brush their teeth all the time--My dentist gave me tooth brushes & paste to send--my GS said, boy Grandma,they came in handy as he couldn't stand their smellie breathes, so he put them on the share table by their helicopters for when they had emergency missions. That solved that problem! LOL

Donna (^_^)

I save the sleeves the newspapers come in for a group here that sends packages to the troops. Those plastic sleeves weigh almost nothing and keep things in their place I guess.

I read they needed lip balm. Hard candies would be good, I'd think.

I hope he gets home soon.

Sometimes the silliest things are much appreciated, when our DS was in Kuwait we sent him care packages with things like hand sanitizer, those flat packages of tuna, crackers, peanut butter crackers, hard candy, dried fruit things like that, but what got the most attention from him and all his buddies were bubbles lol. They had a carefree moment and the bubbles were the most fun they'd had for months. You kind of have to remember these people are adults with a very hard job to do and sometimes silly is a good thing.

Socks are a good thing to send, DS lived in a tent for 10 months so anything clean was good ;o).

Hope that helps, and be sure to tell both he and his wife (she's got the hard job of supporting him) that we thank them for their service and are very proud of them both.

We have Blue Star Mothers in this area. Some of the things they request are things like sauce packets (ketchup, taco sauce, etc.,) you get from fast food places, pop tarts and breakfast bars, hard candy so it doesn't melt, individual packaged drink packets like hot chocolate, kool-aid, etc., pop top cans of ravioli, spaghetti, fruit, individually wrapped peanut butter, cheese crackers, and travel size toothpaste. I think they were also including blank cards and stationary in their packages for the soldiers to send home to their loved ones. I'm not sure if they also have to send stamps.

Thank you everyone!! Great ideas!
I better get busy and make my Christmas goodies!