Snow!

We had snow on Saturday and Sunday! I don't remember Autumn happening at all! In fact, all the leaves are still green on my trees. It has me thinking about Christmas already. I think I want to do a simple Christmas this year. My family wants to exchange only preparedness items for gifts and I love that idea. I want to come up with some services and home made ideas for gifts too. The kids seem to like the idea of getting things like pizza certificates or vouchers for a game of mini golf or some other outing when it is warm enough. (I just have to remember to follow through on those!) I will still want them to have things to actually open and play with on Christmas, but I think simple is the order of the day. I also want to find a cause or service the whole family can get involved with and excited about. All my favorite Christmases revolved around service projects where we surprised someone else. It really took the focus away from what we would be recieving, and it made Christmas so much more fun. I need to brainstorm and find a really good project for us to do. Any suggestions?