Alternative Christmas Presents

As I sit on my couch with a full belly, in my warm robe, under a blanket in my slightly messy living room, I realize how lucky I really am. I am not hungry, I have a nice and warm robe, a great quilt made with love by grandma Elsie, and enough stuff to make my living room slightly messy! I have a loving husband and the cutest pets in the world. I want all of you to take a break, look around, and take in your surroundings, just for a moment before you continue reading......

Last night I volunteered at an Alternative Christmas Market, I had no idea what it was, I just knew that fdoa (Florida Disabled Outdoors Association) was going to have a table there, and I like to help out whenever I can.

The alternative Christmas market I was helping out at was held at Christ Presbyterian Church here in Tallahassee. It was a fund raising event,where several worthy organizations had a chance to introduce themselves to the community, and hopefully encourage people to consider buying alternative Christmas presents this year. Some booths sold items, but all had lists of different levels of donations you could make in someone's name. When I look around my living room I see that I don't really have a lot of room for new things, I mean, if you own enough things to make a room messy, you own enough right?. The only two places I still have room is in my heart and in my closet (I have lots of empty hangers I am human after all)We don't have a lot of money, so if we are able to make a donation it will be small, but I am, going to ask Tom to in place of buying me yet another thing (clothes, especially boots excluded), make a donating to one of the many charities we saw last night. I am sure most of you have similar events in your area, if not, visit http://www.cpcusa.org/altmarket.htm I promise that you will find something worthwhile in there. Many of the organizations, in addition to asking for monetary donations, also need volunteers to help out, used clothing etc. Why not spend a little time next year volunteering somewhere as a Christmas present to ourselves? It doesn't cost anything, but it will help fill up our hearts, no organization is more or less worthy than the other.


P

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