Christmas Christmas Blessings!

Sorry it has been so long! Christmas season can change our priorities sometimes! For the better?? Let's think about it...

What an incredible time of year! Magical, really... tis the season where we can get together with the ones we love and let them know how much we appreciate them. What an incredible opportunity! I am sure many of you are stuffed to the max like moi, and feeling blessed to the nines with love and material goods. Well, I hope so. If not, you are not alone. There are SO many people struggling this year and in need of love and support. It is so important that during that this season the focus is on giving more than receiving, contrary to popular belief, but crucial to keep focused on others and giving our gifts to help others: other families, countries, family members, loved ones, strangers, etc.

This year, here are a few things we can all do to help the people in our world out:

- Donate time to organizations, assembling hampers, organizing charity events

- Give away excessively acquired material goods from Christmas that you don't need... the new definition for "re-gifting" to Community Living, Salvation Army, other community organizations... let's be real... how many of us need everything in our home and all of the gifts that we received this Christmas season? This can be a good time for house cleaning... I know I did and now my house feels a heck of a lot cleaner and I feel like I was able to give a little while feeling good about it!

- Go through your cupboards for excessive dry goods... we went through ours this holiday season and found some canned goods and other unopened non-perishable foods and donated it to an organization that our local grocery store promoted this year... all it took was us dropping by the grocery store to drop them off! Or... buying one small thing per grocery trip to donate to the organizations that your grocery store supports is also a great way to promote the spirit of giving without stressing about breaking the bank... a little at a time we can make change!

- Closets of clothes that are not worn... anything you have not worn in over 6 months... Community Living, Salvation Army or another organizations. Just do it... it will feel good, and someone will be able to make MUCH BETTER use of the items than you are!

Remember: giving doesn't always have to be material... there are MANY other ways, sometimes better ways, to show people we care.
Also: what was your give/receive ratio this year? Did you give more than you received? Can you imagine if we all gave more of ourselves than we received... what would the world look like??

Find a little way to spread some cheer!
Chanel and Heather