'Tis the Season for Giving

For the past several years, all of us girls that work for my dad have exchanged names and purchased Christmas gifts for each other. It's always fun to pick out something for someone else, but this year we decided on something a little bit different & a lot more rewarding. We pooled all the money we normally spend on each other & decided to adopt a family from our local community. Each year the local churches get together to provide food baskets for families in need and the children in those families are then divided among other families, Sunday school classes, or other local people which then have the responsibility of buying gifts. So...that's what we did...we adopted a local family that has 3 children: a 15 year old girl, a 13 year old girl, & a 4 year old boy.

Yesterday we all took a long lunch and headed to Walmart to fill our cart full of necessities & fun things for everyone. In a surprise from my dad, he volunteered to match the funds we had so we were easily able to buy several things for each child. We bought a complete outfit for everyone (pants, shirt, jackets, etc.), new socks, toys for the little boy (Legos & Transformers), & shampoo/conditioner, lotion, shower gel, & body spray for the girls. As we were leaving Wal-Mart with our cart full of gifts we all discussed how this was so much better than spending time searching for the perfect gift for each other.

The next dilemma was wrapping--however, we quickly decided to wrap each item individually in tissue paper & then place each child's gifts in their own HUGE box that we would then wrap as well. So...as I sit at my desk right now--behind me are 3 huge boxes full of goodies and wrapped in fun Christmas paper. I'm so excited to deliver them to the drop-off location tomorrow & I can only imagine how excited these kids will be when they open their box to find not one, but SO many things just for them!

I love this time of year for so many reasons but one big reason is the opportunity to play Santa Claus for so many who wouldn't be visited by him otherwise.