For Christmas this year both mine and Lance's families went a more service oriented route for gift giving and it was such a great experience for us. My family did non-monetary gifts so we had a range of people editing family videos and sending them out to everyone, writing up family memories from growing up, sending out favorite music CD's etc etc. And Lance's family asked everyone to use the money they would have spent on a gift and spend it by doing service. We volunteered to head up our ward's "Angel Tree" project where we collected gifts (in the form of clothing and food) for families in need in our church throughout the area. We used our money to buy fake Christmas Trees to hang paper ornaments on that listed the items needed that people could donate. We were so amazed at all the generosity that was shown by members of our church in our ward. Although it was time consuming at a busy time of year we felt really blessed by the experience. It was fun to involve the girls by letting them help make the ornaments and help deliver gifts and was an eye opening experience for Lance and I. Lance's sister then collected pictures and stories from everyone's service experiences and complied them into a really cute little book for each family to keep. From both of our familes we felt like Christmas was much more meaningful while also being just as exciting.
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