Recieving as You Give

This week, I got to go shopping twice to buy holiday gifts for families who are struggling in this economy. While it is nice to give money to charity, it doesn’t feel nearly as good as seeing the money do something and knowing that five more people will wake up to presents on Christmas morning and five more kids will continue to believe in Santa. In two of my classes/clubs we chose to support a family for this holiday season. As we were picking out Barbie dolls, toy trucks, shoes, pajamas and other things, it made me realize how lucky we are. Aside from the toys that the kids asked for, their holiday wish list also contained things such as winter coats, snow boots, diapers, wipes and other things that we take for granted. I never once considered asking for a winter coat or snow boots for the holidays. These were always things I never even thought about not havinassumed would be there come winter, I never gave it any thought. However, in this struggling economy this is what people need. Not even want, but need. Getting to purchase these items myself made it that much more real and it felt that much better. I have participated in things like this before, such as the holiday toy drive in middle school, where a friend and I would race through the aisles of target the day after Black Friday to get as many toys as possible: hundreds and hundreds of toys. And when we left, it was not with a few toys, but with a carful of toys. It was so exciting to see just how many peoples' holidays we could improve. After experiencing this for the first time, this became one of my favorite parts of the holiday; it's as rewarding as getting presents yourself.

Photo credit: http://www.wichitat4t.org/Web%20Pictures/toyrunpile.jpg