The Season of Giving (and a Giveaway)
My brother Shepard died of cancer on November 29th, 2000. That year, several families did a 12 Days of Christmas for us.
I never found out who it was (although my parents may know), but I still clearly remember what a happy thing that was during a fairly difficult Christmas season.
I’ve always wanted giving to be part of our family Christmas celebrations, so when Kohl’s contacted me a few months ago and asked if we’d be interested in being matched with a family that needed some help for Christmas and picking out gifts for them at Kohl’s, Bart and I immediately said yes.
Two weeks ago, we received the information about the children, their sizes, a few things they wanted for Christmas, plus a gift card to Kohl’s to purchase the items, and yesterday the girls and I met Bart at our local Kohl’s during lunchtime, and we spent about an hour picking out items for three children in our area.
(Although these kids are young, they are substantially older than my girls, so it kind of broke my heart every time Ella picked out some toy she thought was the best and said, “Would those kids like THIS?” and I had to tell her that, no, it probably wasn’t quite the right toy for a nine-year-old boy).
I was really glad Bart came along, because he helped make sure we picked out a good combination of practical things like jackets and fun things, like a remote-controlled helicopter.
Also, I had saved a 20% off coupon that had come in the mail a few weeks ago, and when the total after the coupon came up as $149.55 (our budget was $150), Bart and I both possibly did a little cheer in the checkout lane.
Then we sat in the car and had a little picnic lunch with some sandwiches I’d packed, which was just a ridiculously nice forty-five minutes as a family.
This afternoon, we’ll drop off the bags of gifts at the local charity that we’re working through and we’ll cross our fingers the clothing fits and the toys are fun. And feel grateful for all we have – we are so very very fortunate.
This post wasn’t sponsored (although, I guess I do have a Kohl’s gift card with 45 cents on it. I’ll try not to spend it all in one place). Kohl’s provided the gift cards for us to buy the presents and the gift card for the giveaway. All words, pictures, and cute children are my own.
What a wonderful family activity! I chuckled when you talked about eating lunch in the car! Cute!
A great way to show our children that Christmas is about giving, I love it! We are also starting a similar tradition this year.
Cutest family date ever.
what a great family activity!
Such a great family experience. And I love the pictures!
I love your cute girls! I'm also impressed Bart went shopping with you 🙂
I get pretty much all of my kid's clothes at Kohl's, can't beat their prices and quality!
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I want to teach our kids the beauty of giving– not just at Christmas but all year!
I know I say this all the time, but those girls of yours are so cute I can hardly stand it.
What sweet girls you have. Good job on coming out so close to budget!
that is such an amazing idea. way to pay it forward!
I love the pink & grey outfit! Got it for my niece 🙂
Such a sweet family outing! We like to do something similar every Christmas too!
What a fun, lovely thing to do.
Your girls are adorable!
Fabulous family activity! What a great idea! (And I would have done a big cheer in the checkout line with those kind of money skills!)
Thanks for sharing your experience and cute pictures of your darling girls!
Oh, fun! 🙂 Kohl's is great.
We have adopted families for Christmas in the past and I always enjoy it. This year, with my husband out of work, we could not manage to help a whole family but the kids and I still went to the store and each picked out a toy for the local children's Christmas charity.
Sounds like a lot of fun!