I wanted to share with all of you a little tradition that we started with our family several years back. Heres how it all started, after we had our boys it just got to be tough to get every family member a gift for Christmas. We came up with an idea that in lieu of gifts for the grown ups that we would choose a charity to donate to each year.

We are so fortunate to have our home, our family, our health and we know that not everyone is so lucky. We’ve donated to St. Judes Childrens Hospital, American Cancer Society- Lung Cancer & Breast Cancer. This year, now that the boys are a little bit older I really felt the need to choose a local charity, something that the boys can be a part of and to hopefully understand a little bit about helping others. So this year we chose…

The Food Bank of Monmouth & Ocean Counties.

Last year NJ was so severely effected by Super Storm Sandy and still over a year later people are still trying to find normalcy. From what I understand the food banks in the area have needed even more because of so many displaced families. We are so incredibly blessed that we don’t have to worry about where our next meal is or keeping our boys nourished. This is our small way of helping others this year for the people that live right here in our area.

Today, as a family we all went to the grocery store with our list in hand. This year we had $200 that we could use for our donation gift. Wanting to get the most for our money I planned ahead and made sure to see what was needed at the food bank and what was on sale at the store. Heres what we were able to get….

*20 lbs of pasta, * 80 lbs of rice, *approx 30 lbs of frozen turkey breasts, *approx 40 cans of vegetables, *20 cans of tomato sauce and *15 boxes of cereal

Monday afternoon we will be dropping it all off at the food bank.

I write this post to encourage giving back in some way if you can, no matter how big or small. If you don’t have extra money to donate, then maybe donate your time, a donation from $5 to $500.. its all helpful! Choose something that has meaning for you. If you happen to have kids, its a great lesson to learn and our hope is that we can continue giving in one way or another every single year!

Heres a peek of my family at work at the grocery store {pay no mind to my hubbys “grumpy” face, I snapped the picture while he was talking heehee!!}.