Countdown to Mistletoe...That is one empty tree....Day 3!

That is one empty tree!

Only a week ago at work there was a beautiful Christmas tree decorated with a mixture of silver and gold glittered angel ornaments.  Today...the only items giving this tree some color.....a handful of red poinsettias.

You see...my co-workers have taken the angels off the tree because each one was tagged with a special request from a child...and we added the parents in as well.  Today...the final three ornaments went to a good home and the shopping has begun.

We've partnered with the United Way for the last several years and I look forward to this time of year each and every year. 

As a child, giving back to the community was a part of life.  Whether it was sharing your favorite candy with the residents at the local nursing home, or helping replenish the local food bank....it's just what we did.

As an adult and a single parent, there was a time when I had no idea how I would ever find a way to make Christmas happen for my children.  Christmas happened alright, but it wasn't because there were presents under the tree.  When an anonymous envelope was handed to me with a handwritten message....Merry Christmas.... and enough money to 'make Christmas happen'...I cried all the way home (and still do to this day when blogging about it!).  It wasn't the money - Christmas is so much more than money.

Someone cared enough about me and my precious family to make a difference in my life.  I didn't know who to thank, but I prayed that night to please extend my gratitude by blessing their lives as well.

Dr. Seuss put it perfectly...... 

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?  It came without ribbons.  It came without tags.  It came without packages, boxes or bags.  And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.  then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.  What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

This Christmas.....be the 'little bit more'.