Belated Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your holiday, however you choose to observe, was relaxing (and tasty!) I took Thursday off to cook up a storm with my family and then enjoy the fruits of our labor without too many online distractions.

Now to business: it’s Black Friday, which for many of us means the start of our Christmas gift shopping season. Gifts for others and gifts for ourselves.

Did you know you can do a little good just by shopping at Amazon.com through their “AmazonSmile” program. Simply type “smile.amazon.com” into your browser rather than http://www.amazon.com and for anything you buy, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price to the non-profit of your choice. For example, my purchases on Amazon over the years have supported my local community orchestra.

It’s an easy way to support the causes that you care about all year long – not just on Black Friday. You can support a different cause with every purchase. The only downside: it’s only 1/2 of a percent. So for every $100 you spend, Amazon will donate 50 cents. It’s not much as an individual, but if you get all of your members or supporters to use that link, it can add up over time.