Merry Christmas Everyone!

Usually Christmas gets me down. For some reason, not this year. I have been happy, introspective, and reflective. I have not allowed myself to focus so much on myself and my usual grief. The holiday season brings up loss for me and how much I have lost. I could sit and whine and cry about the fact that I have lost 95% of the people I ever loved but I just didn’t want to this year. And I will say it probably took a good decade to quit that. This year my focus was on the reason for the season (I know how corny that sounds). It’s the celebration of the birth of my Savior and his life. Another focus for me was the way Jesus lived his life and how he helped people and loved people. My parents loved doing this, too. And at this time of year there are so many people in need. I am a bargain shopper and was able to look for great bargains and find some wonderful deals and wonderful gifts for some kids for Christmas.

I also found ways to give that didn’t cost me a dime. There were organizations that benefitted just by me “liking” something on Facebook. I can click a button! I can like something if that means they are going to get money!

Today if you want to give a present to someone you don’t know, you still can. You can go to an online group that has lots of people that needs help financially with applications requesting funding. It is a legitimate group and all you have to do is decide what dollar amount you want to give and pull out your money card and put it in! It’s that simple. It’s called Modest Needs and they have many people who have requested help. It’s a year round organization so don’t let my Christmas post fool you.

Merry Christmas! I wish your heart be merry and light and all your Christmases be bright.

Related articles

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• Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! (ngnrdgrl.wordpress.com)
• Merry Chirstmas! (christianthought.hbu.edu)

I Need Help

Our local food bank is called Manna Foodbank in Asheville, NC. We have an anonymous donor who has offered $1 for every like that Manna gets from now through December 24th, 2012. That $1 makes 3 meals. We need likes! Can you go and like Manna? Will you spread the word? We need them to get a lot of money! It is an amazing organization that helps a lot of families and organizations throughout Western North Carolina. You can visit their website if you want to find out more at http://mannafoodbank.org/ but the like needs to be on their Facebook wall. Their name is MANNA FoodBank. Please help them out!

Helping Others

I saw something today that made me cry and feel the urgency to help someone else. An old friend’s niece recently passed away. I have known her family since middle school. I won’t tell you how long that has been, but let’s just say it is a LONG time. It was her little sister’s daughter. I didn’t know this young lady, but she got very sick very fast. She had down’s syndrome. She had a rough life. And rather than getting to finish it happily ever after, she passed away before reaching adulthood. It makes me tear up thinking about it.

Who plans for this? Who thinks about outliving their kids when they’re so young? They weren’t prepared financially and from what I understand, it took it’s toll.

They’re having a spaghetti dinner tomorrow in Pulaski, Tennessee to raise money for her funeral expenses. Asheville, North Carolina is a little too far away to drive for spaghetti. But since I can’t make it, I can send money. I just found out from the bank where there is a fund set up for funeral expenses that I can send a check made out to her mother’s name, Sherry Barr, and notate the account number and name of account on the check. I can mail the check to Redstone Federal Credit Union, 220 Wynn Dr, Huntsville, AL 35893. This is what I am going to do.