Last November I shared a post that truly came from the heart. It was a side of me I do not usually share on this site. I tend to stick to food, recipes, and kitchen tips and do not deal with a lot of personal topics, but last year was an exception.
Last year I shared a very honest post about giving and making a difference. It was a post I almost did not share because it was so personal and so different than my normal everyday food type post.
The response I received from that post though was amazing. You all made me realize that I needed to share my thoughts and experiences because that post changed some lives and helped others.
This year I decided to share that post again. My goal in sharing this again is not to make those of you that are suffering and dealing with financial difficulties feel worse, my goal is to share the perspective of someone on the receiving end of the giving. My hope is to simply cause those of us with plenty to step back and put some thought into our giving.
This is a little different than my normal food-type post. This post comes from my heart, from my experience, and shares part of my life that I don’t often share with you.
The fact is that as I type this post today I am living a very different life than the life I had as a kid. Right now I lack nothing; in fact, I have way more than I need.
But there was a year or two as a child, my family had very little. Looking back we always had enough. We had a roof over our heads, food on our table, and clothes on our backs, but there was a winter or two that there was not much beside that.
There was one or two years, where a holiday gift basket anonymously appeared on our porch, providing us food and gifts that we would not have had otherwise.
That food helped give us better Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinners. That colorful fingernail polish and makeup made Christmas for a couple of teenage girls. Those holidays were some of my most memorable. Someone took the time to care……. to continue reading click here.
This year my children’s school is doing a food drive, but this year it is different. This year it is personal. Every can, box and bag is going directly to a student family. These are kids and families that we have known for more than four years. With this in mind, I set a budget for each kid to shop for their schoolmates. They did a great job of sticking to their budgets and choosing wisely. This was one way to make this more personal for them and for them to feel a greater connection to giving and helping in our very local school community.
I love that idea and I am sure your kids will remember it for years to come.
What a beautiful post. I am so happy you reposted it. I have been thinking along the same lines about giving this year. I don’t have much if any money this year to spend on gifts but I can still give somehow, and that is what I have been contemplating. I am making homemade things out of what I already have and doing some baking, I make my cards as a hobby anyway, and I have learned a few more paper crafts, so I just was really blessed by reading your post today. Thank you, it was the encouragement I needed. Have a wonderful day and God bless you!
I think what you are doing is great. It is putting the thought in it that means so much, because it show that people care. Homemade gifts take time to create and I think people always enjoy those kinds of gifts, because it says that people took time to care. I hope you have a great Christmas!
Great Post!! We never give out of our pantry unless we’ve had no notice – we always go shopping and plan a basic meal (turkey, ham, and fixings) which includes a cake mix, a box of hot cocoa, some kind of fun candy, and granola bars on top of all the nutricious stuff – I want it to be fun as well as filling!
Fun and filling is the best kind of gift. 🙂