12 Days Of Giving

Bethany at Life With Bubba, Chicky, and Nika came up with a great idea to start this holiday season - the 12 Days Of Giving.

Bethany posted this quote from Barbara Bush: "Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life's blood. But everyone has something to give."

Everyone has something to give. How true is that? I think a lot of times we get caught up in the monetary aspect of giving - especially when times are tough - and we think we don't have anything to give because we can't afford it. But there are other ways to give if we just get a little creative.

So for the first 12 days of December Bethany proposes to just ... give! And to inspire others, share a post every day on how you're giving.

Since I'm a few days late getting this post up I'm sharing three ways that I gave for the first three days of December.

1. Through the website Feed It Forward I 've been sending free $10 restaurant gift certificates to friends and family. You can send a free gift certificate to 30 people a day until Christmas. That's a lot of free gift certificates to give out. All it takes is a few minutes of my time to to log in and submit names and email addresses.

2. Another way to give that doesn't cost anything is to send free printed postcards to deployed military personnel via Let's Say Thanks. All you have to do is select a postcard design (which appear to all be drawn by kids), include a personal greeting, and click on send!

3. Today I gave a donation to the National Military Family Association. Besides supporting military families in general, the NMFA also created a few specific programs - Military Spouse Scholarships, Awards, and Operation Purple. The mission of the Operation Purple camps are to empower military children and their families to develop and maintain healthy and connected relationships ... especially during deployments. I'd love to send Kayla to one of these camps, but it starts at age 8.

If you'd like to join in on the 12 Days Of Giving, just go link up on Bethany's blog!