Friday, December 10, 2010

Countdown to Christmas - Day 10 (Donating, Shopping, and Reusing)


Wrapping Presents
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann
The girls opened another envelope on the Advent calendar. Today was supposed to be game night. However, with a storm coming this weekend, I modified the activities.

After Olivia had speech therapy in the morning, I took the girls to the second-hand store where we donated four bags of books and clothing. The store sells the items and uses the proceeds to fund its programs for seniors, families, and individuals in need.

Looked for and found some clothes there (a great way to save money and support the reuse philosophy).

Then went to a couple of stores to do some Christmas shopping and look at a new washer/dryer since the one now probably won't make it another few months.

Had a fun afternoon together; and the girls found some clothing, warm gloves, and winter boots that they needed.

For wrapping the gifts, I use fabric bags that I made from a variety of Christmas prints. Last year I used all the Christmas and winter-theme fabric I had on hand. This year, I needed to get some more fabric to make some more bags. By waiting until mid-December, the fabric was 50% off.

The good thing about using the fabric bags is that once they are made, they can be used/re-used indefinitely. This saves money and environmental resources (e.g., trees).

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