* See Image Source Below

Every year my family and I do as much as we can to give during the holidays. There are many different ways we choose to give back to the community and others. One of my favorites is Toys For Tots. I love the idea of it all, that every kid should be able to open a brand new toy on Christmas.  I love that during the holiday season I see all the Marines helping assist in making this happen.  It is a joy to witness all the boxes filling up with toys over the few months of October through December, knowing how many kids will be touched by the gift of others. I just love it.

Toys For Tots began in 1947. It was the idea of of the wife of Colonel William L. Hendricks, Diane. She had made a Raggedy Ann doll and asked her husband Bill to deliver it to an organization in Los Angeles, that would give it to needy children during the Christmas Season. When Bill discovered that no organization like that existed, Diane encouraged her husband to create one. And so Toys For Tots was created. In 1948 the Marine Corps adopted the idea. From there it grew into a nationwide organization. Over the last 59 years, Toys For Tots has distributed more than 370 million toys to more than 173 million needy children. It is an very inspiring story from how it was created to what it has become over the years. To read more about Toys For Tots story click here.

So this was the first year that my boys really got into it. They are both 4 years old. They picked out the toys that they would love to give, and even though we had to explain it a few times they seemed to understand and enjoy it. It was so sweet to see them hand over the toys to the Marines and shake their hands. When we were walking away, I told them how proud I was of them. Both of my boys looked up and said, “Mom, when can we do it again?” It made me so happy that they enjoyed it so much, I told them we can do it again real soon.

I look forward to doing Toys For Tots every year with my boys, among other things that involve giving and sharing. I love this holiday season so much.  I really do believe when you give, you can’t help, but feel you received something greater than the gifts you give. Especially seeing the examples we are showing our children. Teaching them the gift of giving.

For more information and Toy Drop-Off Locations for Toys For Tots, visit them at ToysForTots.org.

* Image Source: Bridgestone Americas

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Christmas is almost here and most of us are already preparing. Setting up the decorations, shopping, planning parties, and just getting in the Spirit of the Holidays. I love this time of the year so much that I start planning for Christmas the day after Halloween. I know, I’m one of those holiday freaks. If I could have my house like The Griswold’s, from The Christmas Vacation, I would. But I made a promise to my neighbors I would never take it that far.

In order for me to get in the spirit of the Holidays and start all the preparations, I start listening to Holiday Music, literally the day after Halloween. I can’t get enough of it. So I wanted to share with you my 15 favorite Holiday Soundtracks. I would’ve added like 50 more but I had to cut it off at some point. There are so many choices out there that it’s hard to pick my absolute favorites, but I did my best. This list includes some of my favorites from the past and some new ones just released this year. I hope that you’ll check some of these out and that they will become some of your favorites as well. You can get these at Amazon, iTunes, or your local Walmart or Target.

New Releases This Year:

1. What A Night! A Christmas Album by Harry Connick Jr.

Image Source: Amazon.com

2. A Swingin’ Christmas by Tony Bennett

Image Source: Amazon.com

3. A Lovely Way To Spend Christmas by Kristin Chenoweth

Image Source: Amazon.com

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I’m sure most of you heard of the Kindle either before or (definitely) after it was mentioned on the Oprah Show this month. If you were like me you have big plans to get it for yourself as well as for your friends or family members as a great Christmas Gift this year, but there may be a few things you want to know before rushing in and spending $359.00 ($300 with Oprah discount til Friday Oct. 31) on the new “it” item.

First for those that are not familiar with the Kindle it is an electronic book reader that wirelessly and without a computer downloads books, magazines, newspapers, Blogs and RSS for your reading pleasure. It does not take a computer and it does not take a pre-existing Internet connection; it runs off of Sprints very reliable EVDO Internet. You can browse nearly 200k titles on Amazon’s site from the reader and download them within minutes to your reader. It is in my opinion one of the best ideas in consumer electronics in the last 10 years. It seems to be a must have for anyone that reads frequently.

So I in preparation for buying many before this Friday, I had my husband research it a little more to make sure it was worth getting (he doesn’t take everything Oprah says as doctrine) and he found some interesting things.

Now even though many of us are just hearing about the Kindle it officially launched in late 2007 and there has been a lot of mixed messages from early users, as well as a lot of speculation as to a new and improved 2.0 version. If you remember all the hype behind the $500 plus iPhone only to find that the 3G was soon to be released making the old version obsolete within a year of production, you could see why I got worried when my husband started to tell me the same thing about the Kindle. So I did some digging and here is what I found. more…

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