Stationery card

In lieu of traditional Christmas cards, John and I will be sending New Years cards to our friends and family. (With the wedding we just didn't have time for Christmas cards!) I thought it would be a great way to share some of the FANTASTIC photos we've gotten already from Whitney and Kelli at Caught You on Camera.

What do you think? Are New Years cards a new trend? Or should we just stick to Christmas cards?

Scripted In Happiness New Year's Card

Create holiday photo cards that create smiles.

View the entire collection of cards.

Giving Week Day 2: Warmth

So I realize today is actually Day 3 of Giving Week, but I got a little swamped with website updates at work and errand-running last night. On my scout's honor, I promise to be better about posting,e specially this week! But sometimes an updated list of clients on your brand-spanking new website or preparing for the wintery mix of rain, snow, and ice currently blanketing the Midwest takes priority over blog posts.

Anyway...

The gift for Day 2 of Giving Week is the gift of warmth! I purchased hats and gloves for each of the boys in the family my office adopted.The fleece onesie on the right is for the 1-year old boy. Those bears are just so stinking cute, I couldn't resist!

Each summer, my office offers the employees the chance to participate in a fundraiser for the adopt-a-family program. At the end of May, employees can pay $25 to wear shorts and flip flops on Fridays for the rest of the summer. Or you can pay $5 each Friday to be casual. I think this is a fantastic way to allow everyone to participate but to not add more financial stress at the holiday time. Last I heard, we have more than 300 employees in this location, so you can imagine the money we are able to raise.

We get to wrap all of the gifts Thursday tomorrow (where has this week gone??) and I can't wait to see everything we were able to purchase for this family and hopefully we can bring a little bit of cheer to their holiday season.

Giving Week: Day 1 update
My attempted blood donation is now a badge of honor that I wear proudly on my left elbow. Under that pretty red bandage in Monday's post was a mangled, bruised and swollen mess. I happy to report the swelling is gone, but I have some pretty cool bruises to share!

Note: I apologize if you think this is disgusting, but I just want to show that nothing can keep me from #givingweek!

From Monday night, about 12 hours after donation:

From Tuesday night, about 48 hours after donation, now with band-aid rash:

From this evening, about 80 hours after donation:

#GivingWeek

Giving Week is something I hope to continue each year in the week leading up to Christmas (and to jump-start writing on my blog this year :). The goal is to give something each day that will eventually make the life of someone else better. You could give the same thing each day or strive to give a different gift each day. Now, I'm not talking about just buying the hottest new toy for your niece or nephew and calling it good. The goal of this exercise is to make a difference.

The first gift in my inaugural giving week is the gift of life: I attempted to donate blood this morning.

I say attempted because they cut me off due to bruising and clotting. I got the feeling the nurse was having trouble finding my vein and just stuck the needle in, hoping to strike gold, but no luck. Now, I have been donating blood regularly since I weighed enough and was old enough to participate in high school. Never have I had a problem like this and I was very disappointed that I could not donate a full pint. But, the other nurse assured me there was enough there it could still be used for research.

Although my donation didn't go as planned, I encourage you to donate and give the gift of life. What else would you donate for giving week? Let me know in the comments!

-K