It has been a long time since I have posted on here. Here we are coming up on yet another holiday season and the debauchery and consumerism is rearing its ugly head. Today is Halloween and prior to this holiday I was spying Yuletide Season Sales promotions on television and the toy catalogs have been out for weeks.  I want to advocate giving in a whole new way this year. Actually it is an old way but should be renewed for the season of giving.  If you follow my blog and I know I have tons of fans - LOL - lets make this a season of giving of ourselves.  We don't need money for gifts we just need to donate our time/talent/effort towards a worthwhile endevor that serves others. 
My 13 year old and I came up with this idea last year when the season of buying began and she began asking. I proposed to her and my niece who is just a year younger that they think of all the "things" that they appreciate on a daily basis, be it chewing gum, pencils, lip gloss, etc.  and then everytime they want for an item aquire two and put one of them in a shoe box.  When that shoe box is full we will take it to the homeless shelter and donate to a teenager who may not have those little everyday items that we all take for granted. My daughter went a step farther and called the shelter to find out if there was a teenager there - at the time there was a 15 year old girl - and asked what her needs were.  A night out at the movies, razors, deodorant, etc., so we traded off the shoe box for a shower caddy (much handier when sharing a public shower than a shoe box) and filled it with all the possible things my own teen daughter enjoyed.
We called the shelter and my daughter personally handed the young woman her gift and they both cried - my daughter for the young womans circumstances and the young woman for my daughters thoughtfulness.
This year my daughter is endevoring to get her entire 8th grade class to work in pairs and fill a shoe box for a boy or a girl preteen/teen as a service project.  She is at a small school and we may be able to do 20 boxes. But what I hope most is that she will continue with this throughout the year and maybe her school can even adopt a homeless shelter to provide them with these needs for teens who are often passed over during this holiday time for younger/cuter faces.