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PRESENTS, PRESENTS. PRESENTS EVERYWHERE


My kids are being SPOILED this year. You see, my mother sent her "12 days of Christmas" package early in December. Then their other grandma did a similar series of presents. We're finally reaching the end, tomorrow will be the last day they open presents before Christmas. Well it would be, except I went to the Dollar Store and grabbed some new toys to pull out at regular intervals during our trip to Grandma's house. I wrapped them too, since I had paper left over from last year.

And when they get to Grandma's house (technically great-grandma, but they don't understand that difference)? MORE presents. She asked for the list in November. The day I sent it she emailed me back explaining everything she had gotten for them, which was every item on the list. They're going to have an AWESOME Christmas. Plus my parents are dropping by and that means even more presents ... sometimes it can be advantageous to be the only grand kids (yet, anyway) on both sides of the family.

But what is really, really cool is the Orclette's reaction to the Salvation Army bell/donation people outside of Walmart (are those ubiquitous?) and the Children's Miracle Network (I think that's the right name). She had asked me what both were for and I explained that they helped little kids and families who need to go to the hospital or don't have enough to celebrate Christmas. She immediately asked me for money so she could help them. It was incredibly heartwarming, since giving, especially at such an iconic time of year, is what I think we all should do.

And since my last paragraph was about giving I thought I'd segue into something very dear to me (this is not sponsored, I don't know if either of these organizations do that, but just so you know): Compassion  , an organization devoted to lifting children out of poverty (among other things). It's certainly not the only organization out there that does this but I like it because it is a Christian organization that works through local churches to reach the communities. I also appreciate World Vision, another organization that is unashamedly Christian but that works with any organization in a community in order to aid them (both of these descriptions are what I've gleaned from reading their sites and hopefully they're accurate). I think both approaches are valid and needed; churches should be strengthened, Christians should be helping anyone who needs help, regardless of race/religion/etc.

This is dear to me because we are involved with Compassion. After my kids were born I found that I could no longer even contemplate harm being done to little children. I won't watch movies or read books that place little children in harm's way (although I did read The Hunger Games Trilogy). This feeling developed into a desire to help kids who didn't have enough to eat/were orphaned/etc. Compassion has enabled us to do that, and it is just so incredible to know that we are actually having an impact, we are actually doing something to help alleviate the grievous conditions some of these children are in. It helps me in my history classes when I read about the horrific things that people have done to each other, to the littlest among us. I remember that we are helping, and that we are not the only ones, that others are also doing everything they can to help. It's the greatest present, in my opinion, that you can ever give yourself.

So there you go. I hope that didn't sound like an infomercial (I have a tendency to do that); I attempted to actually write what I felt about the whole thing. May everyone have a lovely Christmas, may your children have presents waiting for them under the tree and may everyone have joy.

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