I hope I'm not about to incite any sort of panic, but CHRISTMAS IS HERE!
I mean, I'm panicking, but only because I probably need to start wrapping sometime soon. It's a good thing my children have trained me to not need sleep ...
ANYWAY.
Not only do I have a giant pile of things to wrap, there's also the matter of this pile of things that will be wrapped by dozens and dozens of people and tucked under a tree with care.
You did that, internet. Every little purchase/donation will bring a dash of joy to a kid at Center for Victims. And there are a LOT of dashes of joy there.
As always, every inch of that pile is toys. And did you see all of those Kindle Fires? ::swoon::
When I was delivering -no joke- over 50 Kindle Fires, Danielle from Center for Victims literally froze in her tracks. It's an unbelievable joy to be able to exceed expectations, and clearly a big box crammed full of Kindle Fires has that effect. There were enough that the shelter was able to set aside a few for adult residents who have no friends or family. It'll be their only gift this year.
Thank you for making that possible. While our goal is to give kids holiday happiness, knowing that a few women who are trying with all that they have to escape a bad situation will have a small thing on Christmas morning is a pretty great thing. They're not all alone. They have the staff from Center for Victims and they have some strangers from the internet cheering them on.
Thank you for cheering them on.
And thank you for continuing to support this odd little thing that I don't entirely understand. Here's the part where I'm going to confess a little something - I went into Christmas Crazy this year with the assumption that it would be the last year. There's a lot of reasons I was thinking that, but then you all changed my mind in the biggest of ways by sharing links, encouraging others to join in, and by sending joy. For as chaotic as the whole thing makes November/December, it's worth it. So, thank you for reminding me of that.
You better be back next year. That's all I'm saying.
And with that, I hereby conclude Christmas Crazy 2021. Here's to 2022 and may it be the biggest year yet, though it will be tough to beat this year. Oh? Have I not mentioned the total for 2021 yet?
That's true. I haven't.
After adding up all of the magic, including Ben's car filled with awesomeness, we come in at $12,404.09.
Good job, everyone.
And have a very merry Christmas.