Passionate Critters

Every year at my work the various departments gather food and toys for hampers that are delivered to needy families for the holidays. We get the names of families from the Christmas Cheer Board in our city.

This year, one department put together a beautiful hamper with toys for the three children ages 2, 4, and 7. Every staff member donated their $25 gift certificate for Safeway, which they all receive as a gift from the union here. One of the staff, Brad, had spoken to the mother and arranged delivery. Brad and Dave loaded up Brad’s car and delivered the hamper.

They carried in boxes of food and gifts for the children, making several trips. The children were ecstatic that they were receiving gifts this Christmas, and Brad and Dave felt really good – until they left the home. Then Dave said to Brad, “That lady didn’t speak much English. Didn’t you talk to her on the phone?” Brad replied, “Yes.” Then he paused. “And she spoke perfect English.” They looked at each other, then checked the address they had. To their horror, they realized they had just delivered the hamper to the wrong family!.

They didn’t know what to do, but after reflecting and realizing that there was another family still expecting the hamper to be delivered, and the toys had been purchased with those three specific children in mind, they went back into the house. They explained that they’d made a mistake. They actually had to take one of the toys out of a child’s hands, pack things up and take it away. They felt terrible and the family was distressed, too. What an awful Christmas story!

But wait – it gets better!

When Brad and Dave got back to the office, they told their co-workers what had happened. The story spread through the building and within an hour, donations started pouring in for another hamper – without being asked, every other department chipped in more food and toys and gift certificates, even another Christmas card was found.

So Brad and Dave returned to the first house later that day and delivered another generous hamper to the family, who were overwhelmed and grateful after the earlier disappointment!

The immediate and unsolicited outpouring of donations left us all with a very warm, joyful feeling. The Christmas spirit is alive and well! Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Go check it out here.

A year ago, Paul had booked us into the Alan Carr Clinic.
We’d discussed it, and we’d decided to give up smoking.
And that’s the last time you’ll see me refer to this as “Giving up”, because… I didn’t give up smoking.
Yes, you saw that right. I said I didn’t.

One year on, I am still a non smoker.
I stopped smoking. That’s the difference.
If you keep telling yourself that you’re giving up, you’ll never do it. So go and rewire your brain.
You give up strawberries. You give up chocolate.
You stop smoking.
If I told you to eat dirt, would you say you’d stop eating dirt, or you’d give up eating dirt?

Okay that was step 1. Stop giving up. Just stop. Period. You’re going to have to rewire your brain a bit probably, but it’s doable.

Step 2 is simple too. Ignore what everyone tells you. As long as you are comfortable with the way you’ve stopped - keep doing it.
For instance, I used a real cigarette, drenched in peppermint oil, and sucked on that sometimes. Not because I wanted a cigarette, but because the activity helped me to think. Everyone was flapping about it.
I still have that ciggie. I have no desire to smoke it.

Go cold turkey. It might sound hard, but it’s not that bad. Yeah, you get a craving every now and then, but it’s more for the action of smoking than for the nicotine.

Still… I am amazed at myself. I did it. I will keep doing it.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I figured it was worth mentioning.

Hello to everyone in blogland. I’m Bethany, the airheaded wench, and I’ve forgotten the password to my personal blog. So - until I get that straightned out, I’m just going to blog all of the wonderfully mundane things that go through my head here. Aren’t you all lucky?!?

Considering we’re coming up on Christmas, and I’ve so far managed to completely ignore the fact I haven’t even started shopping yet, I thought a bit of Christmas cheer was in order. So, without further ado, I’ll post the answers to the survey Angelle tagged me with a few days ago.

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. Eggnog is just gross.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just put them under the tree? Depends. Most get wrapped, but some of the bigger ones might just go under the tree.
3. Colored or white lights on tree/house? Colored.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.
5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year I STILL haven’t put them up yet. Tomorrow…I swear.
6. What is your holiday dish (excluding dessert)? There are dishes other than desert?
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child. Watching the classics for the week leading up to Christmas. You know the ones…Albert Finney’s Scrooge (the musical version), Santa Clause is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Clause….the classics!!
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I’m the oldest, so I found out at some point during my early grade school years from a friend, lol.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We do Christmas Eve with the husband’s family, so we open tons of gifts Christmas eve. Growing up, we got to open 1 gift Christmas Eve, right after we read Twas the Night Before Christmas.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? The usual - lights, glass balls, garland, ornaments (no tinsel, though. Too messy!)
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Loathe it with an all consuming hatred. It’s pretty to look at, though.
12. Can you ice skate? No. I’ve been bugging hubby to teach me for two years.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A stuffed bear, the first gift hubby gave me when we were dating.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with the family, and not having to work.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Chocolate Cream Pie.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Decorating the tree, watching The Classics, and reading Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve…I’m very traditional, LOL.
17. What tops your tree? A star.
18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Both.
19. What is your favourite Christmas song? I Hate People :D. No, seriously, it’s my theme song, and it’s from the Albert Finney version of Scrooge. OK…serious Christmas Song…hmmmm….I like all of the oldies, as long as they haven’t been bastardized by a boy band. All time favorites are probably Wonderful Christmastime, Sleigh Bells, Christmas Shoes (even though I ball like a baby every time I hear it), and all of the songs from The Classics. (Are you noticing a trend yet? LOL)
20. Candy canes. Delish!
21. Favourite Christmas movie? The Classics :D.
22. What do you leave for Santa? Milk and Cookies.
23. What is your Christmas Wish? To go out to Japan and force a little holiday spirit on Angelle ;).

• Pitch Crit Round 10 by BookEnds
• Kristin Nelson Talks About Auction
• Jenny Rappaport Discusses Professionalism a.k.a “I’m Not Your Mommy”
• Diana Peterfreund on Perfectionism
• Nathan Bransford Talks About Why Writing Is Fundamental
• Deb Werkman Interview
• Ten Questions for Nora Roberts

Enjoy!

You know…

Deb started some evil thing. So I’m… going to do it too!

I just got tagged by Angelle… so I’ve now tagged Lara. Only fair! And Nicole needs to get herself a darn blog so I can tag her too! And Kath! And… you know who you are!

So I figured I’ll make one post here… sling the trackback to it into my tag.