A Season of Sharing

I didn't do much Black Friday shopping this year (or any other year for that matter), but I did manage to do a little bit at a sane hour of the day.  I'm not one for getting up at the crack of dawn or standing in the cold wind waiting for the stores to open.  My daughter-in-law went with me after the crowds had dissappated a tad.  However, I have to say JoAnn Fabrics had a long check out line - longer than I remember at other years.  I splurged and finally bought a cutting mat for my sewing table that actually covers the whole table rather than my piecemeal of smaller mats.  I had to cut it down just a wee bit, but I love it!

Please note how neat and clean it is.  It doesn't look this way often, and really....it won't look this way long.  If you are surprised by this view of my sewing room, don't dispair.  This is what the other side looks like now that the table is cleared off:

 Yep, I've got a lot of stuff on my TO DO list!  This is just my stuff.  I have a couple of people in line with their projects for me work on.

Sharing my messy sewing room wasn't really the purpose of this post.  This week starts what Hubby and I have decided to call A Season of Sharing.  We are setting out to give something of ourselves each day through the Christmas Season.  I know...Thanksgiving has just ended and it's not even December yet, but we are starting now.  Christmas is less than 30 days away.  I am one that thoroughly enjoys giving anonymously, so I'm not going to blog about everything that we are doing, but I do want to inspire you to share a bit of yourselves also.  I will blog about some of the things that we are participating in, and I will try to give you some ideas of how you can give too.  We have brainstormed a list, but we are already discovering ways to share that we didn't anticipate.  Don't worry, the list contains a variety of things.  Yes, some are monetary donations - there are so many worthwhile causes out there and all of them need funding.  That's great if that is what you choose to do.  I'll even give you some ideas along the way - maybe some you haven't thought of before or don't know how to connect.  Real sharing comes from the heart though, so a lot of the things I'll be sharing don't cost much, if anything. Also.....if you have ideas, please feel free to leave a comment or send me a note.  I'm sure we haven't near covered everything, and you have some great ideas that we haven't thought of.  I'd love to hear from you!

I'm only going to share a few ideas at a time.  Here are the first few:

- Hubby and I stay at the same hotel everytime we visit our parents.  The staff stays pretty consistent, and they take very good care of us while we are there.  It's as close to home as you can get, and we've really appreciated the personal attention.  This year before we checked out after Thanksgiving, we gave a couple of the staff poinsettias.  It's easy to overlook service people.  They're just doing their jobs, right??  They really enjoyed the extra appreciation.  Maybe there is someone in your life who needs a little more appreciation.

- The ever present Salvation Army kettles are out!  I know that most of the season, we tend to duck our heads or look the other way, but seriously, it takes only a little bit of change to add up!  If each time we donated just the change left over from our transaction inside the store, it would make a difference.

- Switch places with someone behind you at the checkout counter.  Often there is someone who has a child who needs to be picked up from school, or has kids who are tired of the shopping experience, or the guy who has had a rough day at work and just wants to get home, or someone who's not feeling well....the stories are endless.....just plan on taking your time, and swap places with them!  Sometimes that's the best thing that will happen to them all day.

Gratitude for:
- My neighbors who enrich my life.
- To quote a friend: "I'm grateful to be grateful!  There are too many people in this world who thrive on complaining!"
- Being able to share!