{"id":1865,"date":"2011-11-18T09:28:02","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T16:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valianthosting.ca\/clients\/daemon\/?p=1865"},"modified":"2011-11-18T09:28:02","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T16:28:02","slug":"its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/?p=1865","title":{"rendered":"It’s the most wonderful time of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lovely woman I know, let\u2019s call her Kikki<\/a>, has issued a challenge<\/a> to Edmontonian\u2019s to put away our \u201cbah humbugs\u201d and do more for others this holiday season. When I read her original challenge, I had to shake my head. Not because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea. It\u2019s just an odd concept to me to accept a \u201cchallenge\u201d that my husband and I would consider parts of our daily lives.<\/p>\n

Years ago, hubs and I realized that we often have more than we need. We might not have a fancy car (our \u201cyoungest\u201d vehicle is approaching 9 years old) or a big house (790 sq feet) but we have a roof over our head, clothes on our backs, and food on our table.<\/p>\n

Long ago we stepped away from traditional Christmas gift giving and started giving to charities rather than giving presents. We adopted families and organizations rather than attending parties or spending ridiculous amounts on items we\u2019d likely never use.<\/p>\n

And we don\u2019t stop at an arbitrarily defined \u201choliday season\u201d. We realized that the need for support doesn\u2019t end when Christmas wrapping paper goes into the trash. It exists all year long. So we do our best each and every month to make a difference, however small, in other\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way we\u2019ve realized that \u201cthere but for the grace of go I\u2026\u201d and started trying to live our lives to honour the sentiment. Perhaps it\u2019s because of the time I spent living in what are politely termed \u201cdeveloping countries\u201d or the time my husband has spent Peacekeeping and Peacemaking across the globe; we\u2019ve realized just how incredibly fortunate an act of chance \u2013 our births in Canada \u2013 have made us.<\/p>\n

As we get older, we\u2019ve watched our \u201cfriends\u201d pool decrease to the point where we\u2019ve surrounded ourselves mainly with like minded individuals. Most of our friends and acquaintances are actively involved in non-profit organizations. They plan and deliver meals to the homeless. They run dog rescues. They raise funds for women\u2019s rights organizations or to put books into school libraries for underprivileged children. They build schools in developing countries. They fund community centres and gather diapers for teen mothers. They pass out backpacks with supplies to homeless community members. These people we choose to spend time with do something amazing for others on a regular basis and their efforts need to be celebrated.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to continue on our daily lives as if Kikki\u2019s challenge doesn\u2019t exist. Because for us it\u2019s not a challenge; it\u2019s simply the right thing to do. As 2011 draws to a close and 2012 looms before us, I\u2019m asking everyone else to join us in making helping someone less fortunate than you something you do all year long. Stop using \u201cit\u2019s the reason for the season\u201d as an excuse to only participate in giving once a year. Do something each and every month.<\/p>\n

Bah humbug!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lovely woman I know, let\u2019s call her Kikki, has issued a challenge to Edmontonian\u2019s to put away our \u201cbah humbugs\u201d and do more for others this holiday season. When I read her original challenge, I had to shake my head. Not because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea. It\u2019s just an odd concept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1,31],"tags":[163,237,236,238],"class_list":["post-1865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frothing-at-the-bit","category-uncategorized","category-save-us-from-evil","tag-charity","tag-donations","tag-giving","tag-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1865"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1868,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions\/1868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}