An "Abundance Swap" - What a great idea!

I don't know if any of my friends would want to do this, but I think it is a great idea! It's called an "Abundance Swap" and the premise is simple:

Just find 3-10 quality items in your home, shop or office that someone would enjoy as a gift... fun, useful, interesting or beautiful items, new or in really good shape that aren't important to you anymore. "Quality" doesn't mean "expensive." It means well-made, worthwhile, likely to be valued. Price doesn't matter. The gifts should be unwrapped items that someone would enjoy.

Abundance Swaps have been gaining momentum across the nation as citizens become more conscious that 25% of America's waste is produced between Thanksgiving and New Years alone. Not to mention the extra financial burden most Americans undergo struggling to make ends meet. As shoppers learn to tighten their belts unlike ever before many are beginning to realize the value of "repurposing" unwanted items sitting forgotten in their closet corners.

I heard about this in this article from YubaNet.com. This swap has been an annual event for seven years now in Nevada City - which I am nowhere near. But I wonder if I could set something up like this for next year.

I found this article which explains how to set one up: How to host an eco-friendly abundance swap It feels too late for this year - I simply do not have the energy, but I'm going to think about trying this next year for sure!

Blessing Chain Update

Sunday night, we made our first "blessings chain". The evening went very well, although at first the kids complained of being tired.

But then I brought out a bowl of paper strips and talked for a minute about how blessed we really are in this family, explained the task was to write each of your blessings on a strip of paper, form them into a chain, and the person with the longest chain would win the right to choose the board game we would all play.

Boy did the kids come to life! It was nice to see everyone in a contest to see who could be more 'blessed' than the others. After we completed our chains (used up all the paper strips I had made - even had to make more during the event!), we all shared what we had written. Everybody had one or two that made us all go "oo yeah", such as "No one in our family is disabled", "I am not alone in this world", "I live in America", and more.

Joshua was the winner by far, and he chose the game of Sorry! which we all played. We had pudding with whipped cream for desert. And the blessing chain will go around the outside of our Christmas tree to remind us of all the good things we already have.

It was a great evening and one we decided would be come our own holiday tradition!

The "Blessings Chain"

Now that our kids (age 9 and 11) know the truth about Christmas, I have decided that this year we are going to have a different Christmas season. Instead of focusing on the joy of receiving (something my kids excel at), we're going to work a little bit on the joy of giving, and on being thankful for all of our blessings in our lives.

I have come up with an activity for the latter goal which I hope will become a family tradition. I call it "the blessings chain". This Sunday, after we decorate the tree and after dinner, I am going to hand each family member (including myself) 25 small construction paper strips. I will also have more strips available in the center of the table.

The idea is simple: on each strip, everyone is to write down a blessing in their life. For something to be considered a blessing, it must contribute something positive to your life, such as "sunny, warm days" is a blessing; "a glacier on Mount Kilamanjero" is not - well, unless one has hiked up to it, or can prove some sort of connection. The person who creates the longest chain of blessings will win a prize (I am thinking this will be the right to choose the board game which we will then play immediately afterwards.)

We'll all share our blessings on our chains and then hook them together and put them around the outside of the Christmas tree so that we will remember all season long how truly blessed we are.