Do you put up a tree? Decorate? Start shopping in July or wait till the last minute? Like shopping the day after Thanksgiving?

Here's what we're doing this year....first year we've done this and I am so excited! Actually, my son Kevin suggested it and we all agreed it would be fun.....

Instead of buying gifts for each other we are going to sponsor an elderly person or couple. We get the info from a place called The Quinn House. It's been a fixture in Lawrenceville for years and years. They sponsor families with children, too, but the elderly people often go without because people want to help the kids. So, we decided to sponsor an elderly person or couple.

The Quinn House provides shelter and food for people in transition (evicted or just needing a place to go) but they require church attendance and a job (they will help find one).They also have a food bank and a clothing store (clothes are free is you cannot afford them).

We've already started purchasing items (blankets, books, toiletries, sweaters, slippers, etc.). We just buy one or two items at a time so the financial impact isn't so great at any one time.

None of us "needs" anything and it just seems pointless to buy things just for the sake of buying them when there's people who need just the necessities that we often take for granted.

I'm so excited to be doing this! Can't wait to wrap everything and deliver to the facility.....we won't actually get to give it to the recipients (they pick it up or a family member picks it up and takes it to them) but that's okay. Just knowing that there will be someone getting things that they need on Christmas Day is such an awesome feeling.

We plan on having a big dinner and then watching movies together on Christmas Day.