Tis' the Season for Giving!

Christmas is right around the corner!  I cannot believe it, I feel like Thanksgiving snuck up on me.  Anyway - around this time of year I like to give!  I have a pretty good life and while I don't make millions of dollars I am pretty set with myself - I have a nice apartment, a good car, can do shopping or see a movie if/when I like and I always have food in my cabinets.  Obviously there are MANY people in my community who are not as fortunate and I am so lucky to now work for a company that recognizes that!  PRA and the Delmar community as a whole does a ton of things around the holidays to help and I am trying to participate in every single one of them!  

First up was the Delmar Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.  For this they ask all the participants to bring canned goods for the Albany food bank.  You may remember that LAST YEAR I gathered donations for SICM so this year I was all for it again.  Using my couponing abilities and massive Thanksgiving sales I was able to put together two reusable grocery bags full (one was a Marshall's bag which are extra big) of non-perishables.  The director of the race said that they are typically able to fill a tractor trailer full of donations which more than stocks the food pantry!

Next up are the monthly shelter dinners and breakfasts at Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless in Albany.  For a while now PRA has been providing monthly shelter dinners and just recently they began serving breakfast at the shelter in Albany.  I of course am all about this idea and immediately signed up to be apart of the next shelter breakfast; if I can I am pretty sure I will volunteer for all of them.

And lastly, I am adopting a 17 year old girl and an 8 year old boy for Christmas!  (Well, me and a few other people.)  They are both currently living in a shelter and their family does not have the means to provide them with 'Christmas' so we are adopting them!  I am super excited for this - we used to adopt families from the 'giving tree' at church every year growing up but we mainly provided basic needs, socks, shoes, under shirts etc ...  And while we will definitely provide the basics you also get a flavor of what the children like (for instance my 17 year old loves the Walking Dead and the 8 year old is into books and board games) so I will be able to pick out some special toys as well as an outfit for two!