Have you ever felt so incensed, so angry, so absolutely hot over something you’ve seen or read that you cannot formulate the words to respond?

That’s how I feel right now. My first thought was to jump in and write amidst the red haze. Then I thought better and decided to calm down, think rationally and come back to share my opinion with all of you once I can formulate that response.

So instead, I’m going to tell you what my family did today…

This morning, after breakfast I sent my four younger children (TeenGirl is staying with the Grandparents) into their bedrooms with instructions to choose at least five toys that we would pass on to charity. The girls all came up with 9 or 10 items and our little man, Kyler brought out nearly all his toys. He is moving on to only playing sports and doesn’t spend much time with toys.

Then we called our church to see if there were any families having a hard time that might want some of these (barely used) toys. The remainder we dropped off at a local charity.

We do this every year to make room for the new gifts the children will receive and to promote giving. I am in the children’s rooms every couple of months weeding through clothes and toys, but this round is when the kids take care of that on their own.

Then we spent the evening wrapping gifts for our loved ones. Gifts that included DVD’s of this year made on our iMac, wine from local vineyards, homemade hot cocoa mix in ceramic mugs, hand beaded earrings, hand sewn aprons, bibs and blankets and packaged up (reusable) plates of holiday goodies.

Now the stockings are hung and the children are playing together contently on the floor in front of the Christmas tree. Life is good.