Christmas Giving - Give Back, Make a Difference

My boss told me the other day that I will probably die poor, but I’m the happiest person he knows. Yeah that pretty much sums up me! Sometimes I probably do give too much, but oh well you only live once right? And what good is money, you can’t take it with you when you die anyways. Christmas is the season for giving.

Tis the season for giving. So in an effort for the Dalton Family to give back I dedicated this weekend as our family give back weekend. It started Friday Luke and Anna helped me bring in food and new toys to their school office for the food/toy drive. Then we went through the closet in our house and got a giant pile of blankets, pillows, sheets and coats for the Hurricane Sandy Relief drive at Geez Louise & Kids Trading Post in Malone.

Saturday we went grocery shopping and bought 8 boxes of cereal and 4 containers of juice for the Catholic Charities Christmas Baskets. We will be dropping them off at the collection box at Ellis Auto on Monday. We also bought candies and frosting for our special project and came home to make 60 gingerbread sugar cookies for the 1^st grade class at CCS. (Ok so this one we get to give and get, YUMMY).

Later that night we did Anna’s special project. Her class is making Christmas Cards for soldiers that can’t be home for the holidays. We decorated it together and had a great time doing it!!

Sunday morning we wrapped Christmas gifts for the public for the Youth Group Fundraiser. Luke’s Sunday school class was making gift baskets for the home bound. His class was asked to bring cranberry sauce and stuffing so we got two things of each. He was very excited to bring them to his class! Anna asked to pick an angel off the tree at church. You have to attach $5 to the angel and they are use to buy poinsettia plants that go to our elderly and home bound parishioners.

Then we finished the weekend by stuffing envelopes to be sent out Monday. The youth group made lovely homemade Christmas cards, ornaments and bookmarks for the home bound, sick and disabled in our area to help make their Christmas a little brighter.

So that concludes our VERY hectic but wonderful give back weekend this holiday season. The kids enjoyed all our activities and it taught them it’s just as nice to give as it is to receive. We hope that they grow up to respect and give back to their communities. It doesn’t take much to give back. Some of our projects cost money, others our time, but each one will hopefully make a difference in someone’s life.

 

Do you have some free time this season? There are a lot of opportunities around town to volunteer and donate. Give back and make a difference.