Tuesday, November 24, 2009

FOOD FOR THOUGHT


CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING: We have approximately 25 people who we give Christmas gifts to who live out of town. We have family in Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, Kansas and Arizona. (I also have a few friends I mail gifts to also who live out of state) So over the last few years I have gone to giving out as many gifts cards as I can. Sometimes I throw in a little gift for each person or some home made items like Chex Muddie Buddies, my favorite. This year I will be making that along with my favorite cookies. I am also going to try to make some homemade hot chocolate and a very old family recipe for granola. I love giving, it is what I like best about this Holiday besides the birth of Jesus.

I use to buy everyone gifts, wrap them and ship them. But over the years as I have grown older I really only do that for our family here at home. (we happen to love a tree filled with gifts, that is how I grew up and how we do it for our children) I remember all the years of carting box after box into the UPS store. So here is what I do now and I wanted to share this idea with you. A few years ago one of my bowling buddies brought in the form for SCRIP from the school her children were attending. (Scrip is a service where a percentage of the proceeds goes back to the school) I started placing my Christmas order with her. It was so much easier then going to store after store. I know that now you can go into almost any grocery store for a plethora of available gift cards and I have from time to time gotten some during the year. What I really like about doing the Scrip from the school is that as I am buying gifts for our family we are also giving back to the school. So if you know of a local school that has a Scrip Program you might want to place your order for gift cards. Happy holidays!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool!

Amy said...

That is amazing...

Caroline said...

That's really neat. Thanx for sharing.
Caroline

Always a Southern Girl said...

What a neat idea. Thanks for sharing it.

Samantha said...

What a great idea !

Katherine said...

Sounds like a good idea. Fortunately for me, we don't have many gifts to "send" anywhere. I count myself lucky!

Randi Troxell said...

this is pretty cool..

i'm going to check into this!

Kristie said...

I love Chex Muddy Buddies too! My mom actually makes a mix at Christmas of M&M's, pretzels, chex and peanuts all combined with melted white chocolate and I LOVE that stuff too! :-)

I've never heard of the Scrip program before. I'll have to check to see if that have that here! :-)

~*Michelle*~ said...

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. :)

We are doing homemade gifts again this year....last year, we made soap. I think this year we are doing a sugar scrub in small mason jars. I get together with a few friends and the kids to make them and it's great to spend the time with them while making nice affordable gifts.

you made my stomach growl with the mention of that chex mix!

Alexis AKA MOM said...

I've been on Cole's Principal to let us do this especially since we pay tuition and to help keep the cost down we do auctions and other things. She's driving me nuts putting this off! You just reminded me to go back and sit in her office until she agrees to let ME start it. Heck I'll run it, yup add that to the spinning plates :)

Caitlin said...

This year I'm trying baked goods. I found these adorable individual pies baked in tiny glass jars & I'm also giving out some homemade candy and cookie mix. I like the idea because I love cooking for everyone & I want others to enjoy it as well!

Gift cards are definitely a good way to go when you have a lot of people to buy for! I've never heard of the scrip program before.

Together We Save said...

This is a great idea! Giving something someone can and will enjoy.

Trish said...

That is a great idea Debby! And it keeps you from standing in line at the Post Office...Wow!

TJ said...

That is a wonderful idea!

Liz Mays said...

We do that through my sister's school too. It helps with her tuition, I think.

You sure have a lot of gifts to buy!

Technodoll said...

I too love a big tree full of colorful gifts! Coming from a big family, I have many awesome memories of such times...

But the economy has changed, our financial situation has changed so now we only do a "secret santa" with one gift to buy but we focus on a big family dinner where everyone brings something to eat.

New but equally awesome memories as Christmas shouldn't be about commercialism in the first place :)

Anonymous said...

This is a very good idea!! Thank you for sharing it. Tammy

xinex said...

That's a pretty good idea, Debby!...Christine

Colleen - the AmAzINg Mrs. B said...

Hey- thanks for the idea! And yes to the question you asked about Owen :-)

HeartsMakeFamilies said...

Totally amazing. I like this idea.

Kristin - The Goat said...

We've pretty much stopped giving gifts unless we are in the same town, but I love giving gift cards to my sisters.

The Scrip program sounds very interesting. Thanks :)

Kristin - The Goat

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