Sponsoring a child

It's time I talked about Tani in this blog. She is a six year old Honduran child that I sponsor through Christian Children's Fund. This is the first photo I received. She had just turned two anos!

I sent her family $12.oo yesterday to pay their electricity bill, FOR THE YEAR! Helping her family is something that makes me feel really good. Folks are often leary of child sponsorship programs. Kent and I once sponsored a child through World Vision. It was much more expensive than CCF, and we only got one photo of the child and a description of his circumstances.

I get letters from Tani's father and photos all the time. It's great! Ill have to post more about them later because they really help me keep the spirit of Christmas throughout the year!

Lunch Money

We were having lunch at Cracker Barrel today and four soldiers came in. We couldn't afford to buy their lunch, but Kent, my husband, gave them some money toward the cost of it and told them he appreciated them. I'm very proud of him. He's keeping Christmas!

Snowmen in January

I think I'll leave these little guys up a while longer. I use red & white in my kitchen, anyway.

CELEBRATE THE EPIPHANY!

Today is the Epiphany, or Old Christmas, as it is sometimes called. In England, it is the Twelfth Day of Christmas. Today, the Epiphany commemorates the arrival of the Three Wise Men, bringing gifts to the Baby Jesus.

I am celebrating today by turning on all the Christmas lights I've not packed away.

I also made a gift for my husband. We were watching vH1's "Greatest Hard Rock Hits" the other night. I took note of the ones he liked that we don't already have on hand. I then legally downloaded 9 of them and burned him a CD today.

So now, he can sing, "On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a CD of my favorite hard rock songs!"

Finally Fish

I finally finished the neighbor kids' "fish in a bag" soaps. I left them in the neighbors' mailboxes as a surprise this afternoon. I intended to deliver them tomorrow on the Epiphany, but its supposed to rain and today was beautiful. I even sat on the front porch and read for a little while.

I got the idea for the fish soaps from the Martha Stewart Show shortly before Christmas. It took longer than I'd anticipated, so they weren't done in time for Christmas. Besides, I like stretching out the season. I'm not too crazy about the carol, but I do like the idea of the Twelve Days of Christmas. One side of the gift tags I created for the soaps explains what the Epiphany is about.

Now the kids can sing, "On the eleventh day of Christmas my neighbor lady gave to me...a toy goldfish trapped in a bag of soap!"

Remembering

All the news tributes to stars that have died this past year reminded me that stars in my life have passed, too, a couple without acknowledgement. So, I wrote a check to Gideon's International for Memorial Bibles for each of them. One card is ready to mail. I wrote about a happy memory for the family I sent it to. Happy memories are a good way to keep Christmas.
Here's a link to the Gideon Memorial Bible Fund:

https://www.gideons.org/TGI.WEB/TGI.Web.PublicWebsite/pages/MemorialBibleCardsOverview.aspx?PGID=1