December Daily 2014 - Day 10 & 11 - Candy Cane Hunt + Giving!

This is where we left off with Day 9 - Now, however, you can see the photo for Day 11 peaking through and we're ready to play a little catch up with Days 10 & 11 in one post!

 Day 10 featured the annual Candy Cane Hunt.  This is possibly our kids' most beloved December tradition.  I am not sure why, but they adore it, ask for it, and daily hope that today is the day.  It finally was.  We picked B up from school and came home for the big hunt.  E is still not sure what it is all about, but does love the candy canes and finding things.  He did not make the connection that the bag he was holding was for putting the candy canes in and got kind of frustrated at trying to hold all of them...  The big kids did a good job of making sure he found some easy ones.  This evening, I noticed that they missed one of the higher ones so perhaps the hunt continues.

Crafting note - I belatedly realized this page lacked a number so I added the glittery 10 (the red heart was moved to the lower corner).  I had some trouble getting the cut out shape out of the pocket that necessitated a bit of repair work, but all is well.  On the journaling card, I used the "Love this tradition" stamp, which was a perfect fit for this occasion.  I wanted a bit more visual interest and enamel dots would have been perfect fore this.  However, a small girl here seems to have used most of mine, so more Stickles to the rescue!  Also, still loving gold washi and layered chipboard.

 Here are the two days together.  Stars abound and I like having the photos on opposite halves of the page.

Day 11 was about the importance of giving back as part of our Christmas celebrations. I like to document our giving traditions each year and in the past it has been more about Brent and I donating money to our universities, the Food Bank, the Myriad Gardens, Doctors Without Borders, NPR, Child's Play, Project Night Night, and the Oklahoma Bar Foundation. We do still donate to all those, but that is a hard thing for our kids to "see."  As they get older we're making a conscious effort to involve them in more tangible giving.  For Christmas this year, that began with the Project Christmas Box filling with the Wainrights in December.  We've been donating food items at church, toys, books, and clothes to school Christmas drives, and this year are supporting two kids from the giving tree at church.

The kids and I went to Target on the 11th and bought clothes, shoes, toys, and (at Barnes & Noble) books for our giving tree kids.  We wrapped most of the items and added them to bigger boxes to take to church on Sunday.  M & B really began to identify with "their" child and I kept them involved through all phases of the shopping, wrapping, etc... I worry about if it is enough or fun enough for the recipients as there are a lot of "necessities" in there, but keep telling myself we're doing the best we can with what we have and new shoes are important even if not as fun :)  A fun moment was when B picked out the same new shoes for himself (his had big holes in them) as he picked out for his giving tree boy.

For me, the whole experience makes me so thankful that we are able to help like this even in such a small way.  I am also so grateful that we can buy our kids gifts for Christmas and not have to worry about if they have good shoes.  We are so very blessed. I hope our children come to appreciate that too and develop habits of giving to others.

Crafting Notes: I borrowed the idea of decorating this card from Ali's Day 4.  I added a little title at the bottom and some random red star sequins at the top for extra fun. I love having a smiling picture of all three of them together.