the perfect gift!

gift of art-in-a-box traumatic therapy kit thru unicef

i love this time of year.
and i especially love gift-giving. but let's be honest, sometimes trying to make or find the perfect gift for all our loved ones... woowee - that can be a task, can't it?

i'm so lucky. in our family, we love to most often exchange handmade gifts: my very favourite kind of gift. i have this fabulous family that love to make thoughtful and wonderful little gifts for one another: might be a mixed cd, might be something sewn, something drawn, something written, might be special time set aside for something fun, might be doing a bunch of jobs someone else dreads ... i just love it!

for me, handmade's the way to go!
and you know how much i love buying handmade, too.

but beyond handmade; beyond making + buying, i also love gifts that are making a DIFFERENCE, too. and really, you can't go wrong with making a difference kinds of gifts: the gifts that keep giving... so we've decided to give a number of these gifts to family and friends in the past few years. here are 3 of my faves:

----> the unicef gifts of magic: <-----

how about a *gift of play* like buying an art kit for counsellors to use to help children traumatized by natural disasters and conflict. or the *gift of education* where you can buy a school-in-a-box to help school 80 children and provide a teacher and school supplies, too. wow!

or the *gift of relief*:
providing 9 babies in crisis situations with a warm blanket.
...................

---->donate in someone's name to spread the net: <----- a donation of $10 to buy a mosquito net to help stop the spread of malaria in Africa. (one bednet can protect children for up to 5 years)

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----> or donate in someone's name to the stephen lewis foundation, <----- helping to *turn the tide of AIDS in Africa* : i especially love the grandmothers for grandmothers initiative: the foundation "directs these funds to community-level organizations in 15 sub-Saharan African countries that provide grandmothers with much needed support, such as food, housing grants, school fees for their grandchildren and grief counselling."

and another wonderful thing? many of these can be purchased online still, and a lovely info card will be sent to you to give to the receiver, in time for the holidays!

...................

-----> a gift of TIME locally: <----
how about a visit to the local food bank or shelter. spend an afternoon there helping out with the whole family.

how about finding a group or organization or cause that really means something to you or a family member or a dear friend and donating your volunteer time in their honour. i know i'd love that!

.............

so here's to making change, even in our gift giving! have something you like to support and give you'd like to share?
we'd love to hear!

happy giving, lovelies!

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