The December Monthly Project: The Season of Giving NEEDS You!

Here at the Sisterhood, we spend a lot of time focusing on ourselves.

How to make ourselves better, how to enjoy our lives, how to treat ourself nicely, how to look and feel better about ourselves.

Well this month, we’re going to turn the focus a little away from ourselves and instead onto other people because giving makes other people feel good and helps them enjoy their lives and gives them a chance to treat themselves nicely. And besides, who are we kidding? Giving to others makes us feel nice inside too.

And this is really the time for that.

The economy has seen better days, we’re all feeling those effects I’m sure, and there are a lot of families here in the U.S. and around the world who are suffering the effects of it. We’ve lost homes and jobs and have taken paycuts and I know some of you might even be thinking you’ll skip this project because that this is probably the least likely time in your life you could possibly give anything to a charity because you’re in need yourself. Trust me, I know what place that comes from.

But the first place people seem to cut corners when they’re trying to stay afloat themselves is giving to charity, which means that when there are more people who need it more now than ever, there are fewer people giving.

This month, we urge you to spare anything, some blankets and pet food for your local pet shelter, some blankets or food to a homeless shelter or food pantry, adopt a child or a family for Christmas or just donate a toy for Toys for Tots. You can shovel a driveway for some elderly neighbors, you can buy a toy or food at a store that is already putting on a drive, anything nice, any single act of giving or kindness.

Make a dish of cookies for a grieving friend or send over a dish of pasta, anything. And get the family involved!

We happen to have a few ideas for you, too, and each week we will profile one of those. For this project, all we ask is that you spread the Holiday Spirit, by donating something or doing something, anything, for another person and blogging about it and letting your fellow bloggers know about which charities or projects need help or how they can help in their own communities.

If you can do one thing this holiday season, it would be wonderful! If you can pick something different each week to do, that would be wonderful too! Participate as much or as little as you can, just participate!

Here is a charity I learned about last year, right before Christmas.

It’s called “Elves from Catie,” a charity named for a little girl named Catie who lost her life to a brain tumor in 2007. She was only 4. Soon after, her mother began working with a charity that gives Elves to children fighting cancer in hospitals. Catie loved her elf very much.

Last year, I bought Elves came from the North Pole to visit my children and as the story goes, the elves get into all sorts of trouble at night while the kids are sleeping. It was a blast, the elves watched movies and got popcorn everywhere, they made forts, they toilet papered the living room, the kids couldn’t wait to wake up and see what the elves had done. Not only that, the elves have a direct line to Santa and will tell Santa if the kids are being naughty or nice! Which worked out well for Mommy. As you might imagine.

We can’t wait until they come again this year.

The website is www.elvesfromcatie.com.

You can support the charity by buying an elf for yourself or a loved one, or you can buy an elf directly for a child who is in a hospital right now undergoing cancer treatments for just $15 by going here.

The elves are perfect for the holiday season and they bring so many smiles to children it’s just amazing.

There are so many wonderful causes and charities out there and people on your street or in your town who need help. Won’t you participate in this month’s project? Link up here next Monday and let us know what you did! And show us whose lives you’ve touched!  Next week, we’ll spotlight another charity.

And please comment or email us your favorite ideas or charities so we can add those to our roundup! (christieo@shrinkingjeans.net).

Have a happy and wonderful holiday season!

Tags: featured, kid friendly, MIND IT

Category: Christie O., MIND IT, The Monday Project, The Sisterhood