No gifts, thank you.

I am super grateful to all of my family who, for years now, have donated to a local animal shelter or HIV/AIDS organization instead of getting us a Christmas gift. It's been at least ten years since my parents started doing this, and every time we are back in Michigan we get to see the results. The animal shelter in Bay City where my mom donates in our name even has a brick for me and Mike!

So many amazing organizations doing so much good work.

Every year around this time I like to write about this. It's pretty simple. We have the power to make an intense amount of change by asking our friends and family to donate to an organization we would support rather than get us a gift. I have altered that for some folks who insist on a gift as it's "what they want to do" to say that if you get us a gift, please make a donation of equal value.

Our friends and family have loved this. So have the small, local HIV/AIDS organizations and animal shelters.

Everybody gets a gift. Plus, those who love us get the chance to know us on a deeper level by being a part of supporting groups we support. And they get to learn why we support these groups.

Thanks for reading!

No gifts; please donate

It's that time of year again.

Don't get me wrong, I love to shop. I love seeing something I know Mike will just love and purchasing it. I do the same for friends.

Then we get to Christmas and the whole world is buying gifts, in some cases just because. Not because the person is going to absolutely love the gift, but just because.

Please don't do that for me. No gifts please. I have everything I could possibly want. The newest vegan cookbook? If I want it I have it. That really cool animal rights shirt? Same thing.

When someone who loves me and cares about me wants to give me a gift, I ask them to make a donation instead.

My typical request is to ask friends and family to donate to their local HIV/AIDS group or their local animal shelter. My parents have been doing this for years. It works well on so many levels. For me it's much better than receiving a gift. The donation changes the world for a living being.

Many of our readers have donated to the groups we have listed on the main page of the blog. I love that, mainly because these are groups that Mike and I donate to and we firmly believe in the work they are doing.

I recently made a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project in honor of a relative. This group rocks it in caring for wounded veterans, something important to my relative. Would they have preferred cash? Perhaps. But like any other donation I have made in honor of someone, the donation changes not only the group I donated to but it also changes the person I made the donation for.

Thanks for reading!