A Valuable Lesson

"I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year."

- Charles Dickens

A few weeks ago we had a garage sale. 

Seemingly junk was purdged from our lives only to find new life at someone elses home. 

The bonus? 

We had a little extra change in our pocket.

$82.10 to be exact.

And what do you do when you have a little extra money lying around?

You do a little Christmas in July shopping.

Monday morning Bree, Jake and I headed out to Walmart to take advantage of back to school prices and variety to purchase items for packing into shoeboxes for

Operation Christmas Child. 

Here's what we bought:

With our $82.10 we bought enough items for three shoeboxes.  Each shoebox contains:

-insulated lunch bag

-matching drinking cup

-Crayola Crayons

-Crayola washable markers

-Crayola water paints

-glue sticks

-glow in the dark stars (for the ceiling)

-toothbrush

-flossers

-Band aids

-5 small play-dohs

-Uno card game

A new tradition has been born in our house this year.

Every summer we have a garage sale.  Sometimes two.  From this summer on we will prep for our garage sale with the thoughts of just how fortunate we are in all that we have.  We will let go of all those "someday" and "once in a blue moon" items knowing that the money made will go towards brightening a child's Christmas.  We will keep the Spirit of Christmas in our hearts all year and, more importantly, let our actions show it. 

153 days until Christmas!