charity – MamaBlogga

My kids saw their gifts–now what?

I love surprises, and to me, surprises are part of the joy of giving gifts. In the interest of keeping everything a surprise for Christmas, Saturday I pulled out all my kids’ gifts from me and wrapped almost all of them. I decided to save four odd-shaped ones until later, when I’d have more boxes to wrap in.

(Don’t feel too bad, I’m not that on top of things: it’s December, and also, I just bought the stuff the day before.)

And then, like an idiot, I left ALL the presents in the middle of the family room. The kids got up before me the next day and found the gifts. Oy.

I asked my mom what to do and she recommended I tell them how we were planning on donating some toys to charity (and, of course, actually doing so—just not with those particular toys).

I like this idea a lot because it kills two birds—or some less violent clichÃ©. I want Christmas to be about giving (you know, after being about Jesus), especially giving to those in need, and I want to involve my kids in that. And of course, I want them to still be surprised on Christmas day. (That might be three birds.)

Since the kids are getting new toys for Christmas, I really want them to pick at least a few toys of theirs that they don’t really play with anymore that we can donate to other kids. (This also helps to make room for our incoming toys.) It’s a little hard to find places that want used toys, but I’m thinking a local women’s shelter and possibly the food bank (they take used toys for only their waiting room, but still).

A few useful links:
Kids’ Health article on getting your kids to donate their toys
And a fun lesson to help emphasize Jesus at Christmastime when Santa offer stiff competition: Santa as a type of Christ (seriously!)

I think most of us have met Flat Stanley at least once—a far off niece, nephew or cousin gets an assignment in school and they send you a paper doll named Stanley. (In case you don’t know, you show Flat Stanley around and take pictures of local attractions with our man Stan and send them back to the sender.)

That’s a little like what Flat Daddy is about—the Flat Daddy project helps military families maintain unity even while their father (or mother, I’m sure!) is deployed. A life-size standup photograph of their loved one helps families to remember their dad and husband (like you could ever forget, but for little kids, it helps), and helps to make them an active part of their lives. As we all know military services is not easy, the military man is ready to sacrifice his whole life for the country, without worries about their families. The families to shows great patriotism for the country by sending the one member of the family into the military forces. The army man can be awarded by the medals and other honorary items like challenge coins and many more but their family wont be appreciated by anyone. Hence we also decided to honor the family with challenge coins, which is considered as the greatest award for the military.

Here’s one family’s story about their Flat Daddy, as shared with their local news, which explains it so much better than I can:

(Okay, I’m crying just thinking about this.)

Elaine Dumler, the “Flat Daddy Lady,” is working to provide families with free Flat Daddies. You can help support our military families with donations of any size.

Author (and friend) Annette Lyon brought the Flat Daddy project to my attention. She learned about this project while writing her latest book, Band of Sisters, about five military wives, and I’m happy to help her spread the word (and celebrate her book).

In fact, Annette’s book launch for Band of Sisters is tonight. Annette Lyon, Sarah M. Eden (author of Courting Miss Lancaster), and Julie Coulter Bellon (author of Dangerous Connections) are all celebrating a book launch at the Orem Deseret Book (by University Mall) from 6-8PM.

If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by for tons of fun and door prizes!