Update on St. Nicholas Cheer!

The other night we drove by the neighbor we shared our St. Nicholas basket with and saw they had a snowflake on their door - we were so excited to know they were spreading the cheer :)

So last night I went to meet a friend I have not seen in over 4 years (probably more like 6!). As I pulled out of the driveway I noticed the neighbor across the street had a snowflake on their door!! I felt like a little child on Christmas morning and called my girls to let them know - they found me amusing - and just as I was about to hang up I spotted yet another snowflake! Then they started getting a little excited :) I decided to drive through the neighborhood when I came home and I found 5 for sure snowflakes and a couple of others that could be! Now I'm really excited to do this next year much earlier in the season. The girls really want to do at least 2 baskets next year ... I don't know, maybe ...

On another note, Terry and I had the children clean out their closets as they had been piled high with stuff and junk and even trash from where we would tell them to clean their rooms. So last night I went in to go through all the clothes and weed out any that were too small, etc, as well as put away a whole load. I was flabbergasted - the children had made a huge pile of clothing that had been stuffed in the closets outside in the hall by the washer and we just sort of assumed the closets were halfway decently straightened up - WRONG!

I know you're thinking - does this have anything to do with St. Nicholas cheer - yes. Yes, it does...... So I had them come in and pull *everything* out of the closets and we all went through the piles together. I told them to start pulling out stuff they don't like, don't play with, don't want, and put it in a pile. They asked what we were going to do with the pile and I said the decent toys will be given to other children who have no toys and the broken ones in the trash. All of the sudden they really started weeding out those toys. Toys I never thought they would part with suddenly had phrases like "Another kid would probably enjoy that more I do" attached to them.

We wound up with a huge garbage bag full of toys and two smaller backpacks full of smaller toys. I'm going to go through them carefully and pull out any broken things and then I'm taking the bags to the women's shelter in town. They always need toys for the children to play with since they basically escaped their situations with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I was moved to tears at the giving hearts my children displayed. May they grow to have wonderfully giving spirits all the year long for all of their days!