A Wedding Gift for Jen

This post came about for several reasons:

First, I read these posts: Pam at Ramblings and Janet at Westcliffe.

Then, I read this post at Jenny's Mama Drama Place  who directed me to this post at Jen's One Plus Two Place.

So, I decided to put this together. (I do not know Ariana or her family.)

A sweet angel of a little girl, Ariana, a 4 year-old has been diagnosed with Brain Stem Glioma.

She wants to be a dancer and you can visit Ariana's Web-Site.

My post today has a "Pay It Forward" theme and is a gift for a fellow blogger.

Procrastinating about buying Christmas gifts and finding myself 16 days from Christmas with nothing to even wrap, I'm asking, "What to buy ???   What to buy ??? "

a toy that will come in a box and the box will be played with more than the toy

a tie that will be stuffed in a drawer never to see the light of day until the garage sale

a set of tools that looks absolutely marvelous holding up a stack of air conditioning filters

a knife that will be lost when all the gift wrap is thrown away

a Zune that I'll never figure out how to operate

a pair of candlesticks used once a year

OR a Random Act of Kindness:

a donation to a new-found charity or an old-favorite charity

an angel off the tree at the mall

an hour or two volunteering at the soup kitchen

a few minutes spent visiting someone at the nursing home who has no one

a few minutes visiting a patient at the cancer or burn center in the hospital

a phone call to a long-lost friend or family member

the list is N.E.V.E.R. E.N.D.I.N.G.

A few weeks ago, JulieBug had a post asking what our favorite Christmas song was. I wanted to share one of mine here, in hopes that it sparks motivation to maybe consider taking a little commercialization out of "Christmas" to give a part of ourselves rather than something from the store.

So This is Christmas  and another version: 365 Days of So This is Christmas. If you only have one minute, listen to the second version. ( I swear I saw Marnie at her old Blogger place with her Volcano Face.  One of my favorite pics in the video:  the Boxer puppy)

It really doesn't matter if our celebration is called Hanukkah , or Kwanzaa, or Christmas , or even if this is just the last month of the year for us, no different from any of the other eleven months, or what country we live in, we all speak the same language of smiles. . . and how simple it is to make someone smile.

Today, you may not have time to comment...instead, take the time to navigate to a link or two and read and listen and ask yourself:

What IS Christmas?

P.S.  Jen at One Plus Two, this is your wedding gift.  :)

P.P.S. For an inspiring story and to read a very talented writer, go to Heather's Fumbling for Words. You'll not be disappointed. Her story follows today's theme of Sharing, Caring, and Giving.

Comments

[Pixie]

Hey Swampy. I just added Arianna to our Christmas list. Thank you for bringing this situation to my attention. Merry Chanukwanzmas!

[Jenny]

So beautiful! I love it.

[jen]

hey there,
i just stopped back by to re-read my lovely present and noticed my comment isn't showing...gasp...did it not go through?

let me try and recreate:

whoa. and i thought the heroes was pretty cool, but this? this is is lovely, and so perfect, and so thoughtful.

And so very good. pay it forward, indeed. going off to clickity click now.

See you Sunday!

[Karmyn R]

What is it about Christmas that brings out the best in people for volunteering and giving - when we should be doing it all year round!!!

[mark]

Great message. I'm with Karmyn on this - what about the rest of the year? I hope this happens again in July when it's beautiful outdoors and almost nobody is thinking about this. The need for these things never goes on vacation.

[swampwitch]

PIXIE: Thank you and thanks also for the info I found at your place about Walter Reed Medical Center.

JENNY: Glad you liked it.Click,Click, Click.

JEN: Thanks for checking back. It was probably that pesky word verification box which I think I may have been successful in turning off. Congratulations and Best Wishes.

KARMYNR: I agree with you. Maybe we need to have a blog campaign once a month with a caring, sharing, giving theme of some kind.

MARK: And I agree with you, too. Same applies to 9/11. Why do we only seem to remember the victims and their families in September?

[jen]

we got a little plan for keeping it going year round....we'll tell you at the wedding..

[her indoors]

i know we should be giving alll the year round and not at christmas. For my contribution i will not be sending christmas cards but donating the money that would have been spent on cards an postage to charity.

[Pam]

Excellent post. I will be checking these out later. And thanks for the shout out about Ariana. Breaks my heart and makes me wonder what other child out there might not see Christmas this year.
♥Pam

[swampwitch]

Has anyone noticed that I turned off the word verification box? Anyway, I think I did. Didn't I?

[Nessa]

I have been encouraging everybody I know to do the same thing. Don't give me a gift, give to someone else who needs it more.

[her indoors]

hi try and see if this gets you to my blog it may be my fault for putting in my email addy instead of my blog page or it may not mmm oh an yes you have turned of word verification

[Mist 1]

Is it okay if the random act of kindness is buying myself some new boots. I think that's the real spirit of the season.

[swampwitch]

NESSA: Great idea !

HERINDOORS: Yup, that worked. Thanks.

MIST1: or is it MISSED 1? Absolutely it's ok! Since you're about as random as they come, I think buying new boots for yourself would be keeping with the real spirit of the season. :)

[Heather]

Thanks for the nice plug!

[Jas...]

To me Christmas is simply a day in Winter when I like to curl up under a good quilt with a hot mug of coffee and play with whatever toy I got from someone, while enjoying that they're playing with the toy I got them!

[jen]

fish...too many late night links i fear.

fixed, madame swampwitch.

i love it over here. glad jenny brought us together.

[swampwitch]

HEATHER: The other bloggers told me you paid big buck$ for plug$.

JAS: Thanks for stopping by and since this is your first time to the asylum, I won't even ask about using "under the quilt" and "toys" in the same sentence.

JEN: Actually, I rather like the sound of swampfish and may just start using it on occasion to cornfuse people.
"Madame Swampwitch" has a nice ring to it, too.

[Mad Hatter]

Great ideas here. My husband and I have decided to keep Christmas small from here in. The excess of it all was getting to be too much. I'll definitely follow up on some of your suggestions.

[Goldie]

Those are the great ideas, I will certainly follow them while shopping through CouponAlbum site (http://www.couponalbum.com).