Christmas Shopping

The last few days have been exhausting.  At least my Christmas shopping (for the most part) is finished.  And I never left the house!  I have our soldier girl and my Dad left to buy something for.  Dad is easy -- all he ever wants is pipe tobacco.  He counts the cans he gets from me and my sisters and squirrels them away in his cupboard.  He knows exactly how many pipes he gets out of each can and figures out how much he can smoke until his birthday comes and he receives more tobacco.  We also give him tobacco on Father's Day. So between my sisters and I, Dad generally is kept in Half and Half pipe tobacco heaven for the full year.  Soldier girl is the hard one to buy for.  I suppose Tom and I will make it easy on ourselves and just send her money. But at least the gift shopping is mostly taken care of.  I thought very hard about what gifts to buy.  Mostly I bought necessities -- food and clothing.  Next was how-to books.  Lastly, for entertainment I bought some DVDs.  To say the least, this is a very frugal Christmas for us. 

This Christmas I am very mindful of the suffering of the many Americans who have lost their jobs, homes, health care.  Those whose lives are in ruins and have been displaced because of the economy or weather related disasters.  On my Net roaming I came across this video:



Pretty grim, and from what I've been reading, the worst is yet to come.  We probably won't see the bottom until March of next year at the earliest.

No one person can dry America's tears, but each one of us can do something to help.  Drop a coin in the Salvation Army bucket; buy a bottle of eye wash or hand lotion for a donation box going overseas to soldiers; give a food item to your local food pantry.  Or do what I am doing and knit warm hats and mittens for needy children.  Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do unto Me.  Let your heart lead you. There is always a need somewhere in your neighborhood that you can fill, so rise and let your Light shine this Christmas -- and always.