Christmas Giving

picture borrowed from:
http://seriouslymere.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

 On St. Croix, when the season starts, it STARTS!  From the first day of November you can spot those people who are over achievers and decorate their houses for Christmas, hear some people start to say "Season's Greetings", and get that feeling of - it's getting colder, it must be near Christmas!!!  I tend to hold out, it has to be December or I won't utter "Season's Greetings" to ANYONE!  We don't decorate our house or even put up the tree until after the first weekend in December and forget about putting on jeans until the Christmas winds hit!  

We do however, start thinking of Christmas in advance; with half of the family living overseas, we usually do some of our Christmas shopping in July, because face it, the postal service and shippers are just not our friends here.  Let me rephrase that… the SYSTEM is not our friend, the wonderful ladies in the Gallows Bay post office ARE our friends, and we LOVE them to death.  This year we decided to give hand made gifts to all our friends and those family member that would appreciate them.  Not everyone likes handmade gifts, I get it, so some people get them and others don't.  We have been busily making goodies for everyone on our list.

Mango Jam ready for gifting.

I made quilted kitchen towels and various jams with Aislin's help (can you say math lesson?).  Aislin is making hair things for her friends and girl cousins.  Christopher is getting in everyone's way and giving his 2 cents about it all - oops - sorry not a gift!  Stephen is paying for all the supplies.  So see, we are all doing our part.  

We did decide to do something a bit different that I really enjoyed putting together.  My cousin, who has a blog (I mean really, who doesn't these days?)  talked about blessing others rather than just your family.  Many of her ideas were great, adopting a classroom or subject taught in a classroom, adopting an object in a museum or place, donating to a women's shelter, etc.  What really got me was her suggestion to send everyday things that we take for granted deodorant, lip balm, snacks, etc to soldiers at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.        

What is the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center? well,  when our active military duty are severely injured they are sent by medivac to this facility in Landstuhl, Germany.  http://ermc.amedd.army.mil/landstuhl/index.cfm  In our family we do talk about soldiers and the sacrifices they make. Do we know any soldiers personally who are over there right now, well, no. DO we totally appreciate what they are doing for us - YES.    So in order to show a small bit of appreciation for the men and women over there, we are getting a package together. I made my Grandmother's Christmas Toffee, bought some deodorant, lotion, lip balm, and candy.  Aislin cranked out some Christmas cards, and helped me to package it all up.  Will it help tons of folk over there, probably not, but will it teach my kids to give selflessly to others - yup.  Will it give me a nice warm fuzzy feeling - double yes, and is this one of the few things that we can do that emulates what the session is all about - you bet your bottom dollar!

So, if you want to do the same here is their address:

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center

Attn:  MCEUL-CH/Chaplain’s Office

CMR 402

APO, AE 09180

Season's Greeting All!