On the 11th Day of Christmas

#11 Giving Back

Jesse and I love being involved in our community and giving back year-round, but especially during the holiday season. We are so very lucky to be blessed with good health and jobs we both enjoy {most of the time anyway} and we're very fortunate to have healthy, loving families that we get to spend the holiday season with! So, each year we try to help others that are more in need than ourselves. Each year  our parish adopts seniors, kids, and families in our community that won't have a Christmas if it wasn't for others. This year we adopted a 72-year old man that wished for a warm hat, gloves and a scarf.  Jesse and I enjoyed shopping for him this weekend and it was even more exciting when I dropped the gifts off at the parish house to see the front room filled with brightly wrapped packages!  The parish is really going to make a lot of people very happy this year on Christmas!!

We also like to think of other ways to give-back. Tomorrow night at our annual Jaycees Christmas dinner we award our fundraising checks from Friday's Alive {and now the Gobble Wobble} to our beneficiaries.  It is pretty neat to have representatives from each of the organizations present to talk about the non-profit and what they do. It's even more exciting to see $1500, $4000 and $5000 checks being handed over after a years' worth of good hard work from young professionals in our community. I'm very proud to be a member of such a great organization where others share the same beliefs and sense of giving that we do!  We're also collecting gifts for Toys for Tots at the dinner!

For those of you that are Pinterest fans, you may have already seen this, but I wanted to share. Pinterest has created a 30 Days of Inspiration Interactive calendar to help guide the holiday spirit. They wanted a way to incorporate giving-back into everyday things people are doing. Check it out if you haven't already, it's inspiring and full of ideas!

We also bought a few gifts this year that actually give back just for purchasing! Toms is one of the easiest - all you have to do is buy shoes and a child in need gets their own pair as well. Such a great cause. You can also drop off food to a local food pantry and many even have locations in the grocery stores, like Wal-Mart, Kroger and Harris Teeter.

Have you found any easy ways to give back this holiday season? Let me know what you're up to!