Inspired to Give Back this Season

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'Tis the season to shop, and buy, and wrap, eat, and drink, and laugh, and be merry...right? But 'tis also the season to GIVE to a cause or family or person who may need a helping hand.

This is a conviction I feel often, but it's especially strong during the holidays. Just ask my family...as I've been known to go all out buying goat's for families in Africa in their honor as Christmas gifts...an "interesting" gift to receive, to say the least!
(If you're in the market for creative giving, check out World Vision).

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Growing up, my mom had my sister's and I participate in Operation Christmas Child every holiday season. I LOVED this as a kid because it meant going shopping for a little girl or boy's Christmas presents which I would be allowed to thoughtfully pick out all on my own! Everything had to fit in a shoebox, which we would wrap carefully, and send off to a child in need.

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These are just a few of the ways I have given back over the past holiday seasons.

But this year I started to get lazy.

I started to wallow in the "how can I even afford a Christmas gift for my husband?!" and "I'm canceling my December birthday to save time and money" thoughts when I realized:
I have lost sight of one of the REAL reasons for the season--GIVING OF MYSELF TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO NEEDS IT!

Inspired by The Blind Side (which is an AMAZING movie, if you haven't seen it - GO NOW!), and then by Great Full Day's blog series called The Great Give which challenged bloggers to DO SOMETHING (however great or small) for someone else, I started brainstorming WHAT I could do this season...

Last night, I read an AMAZING article in this months "O" Magazine on the practice of tithing to charity. It was an excellent piece (read it here) which encouraged giving what you CAN and then a little more - making it "feel like a sacrifice." I know with the economy, everyone is pinching pennies this season, but it's important to not overlook those who are hurting far more than we might be.

So...the hus and I have decided to adopt a local family of 3 to purchase gifts and groceries for this Christmas. If you live in the Bay Area and are interested in the organization we went through, click here. I cannot WAIT to receive the names our family and go shopping for them! This IS one of my favorite parts of the season...giving the gift of love, time, and a portion of my paycheck to make another family's Christmas SPECIAL!

Let's get to GIVING, shall we?!

We want to know, what are YOU doing to give back this season?

(P.S. This is the LAST DAY to enter to win a gift certificate from The Urchiness & THANK YOU to the ever thoughtful blog Stylestance for the feature today!)