Toys for Thoughts

Remember that feeling you had as a child when you woke up on Christmas morning and just knew that there would be presents waiting for you underneath the tree? My brother and I would get so anxious that we'd be out of bed by 5 and tip toe into the living room, occupying ourselves with what was in our stockings until our folks woke up and we could finally unwrap the packages with our names on them. Some of the presents were "just what I wanted!" and while others may have been "oh, hey, thanks" the thing that mattered then, the thing that still matters all these years later, is that there were presents for us.

Now imagine what it would have been like if there were no presents, no stocking, probably not even a tree. Try as I might I cannot; but that unimaginable past is the all too familiar present for many children. Families just trying to get by don't have the good fortune to buy lots of gifts, sometimes any gifts for their kids.

The good news is there is hope and that is where you come in. The LAFD, along with other local fire agencies and ABC Channel 7 are hosting Spark of Love, a drive to collect toys for kids in need. When we heard about it, Meg and I bought a toy, ready to drop it off at our local station this weekend but as I was reading my Twitter feed tonight I saw that they are still struggling to get enough toys in time for Christmas.

So here is the thing- for each of the first 15 of my friends who will share one of their favorite Christmas toy memories with me, Meg and I will buy and donate another toy to the drive. You can post it on my Facebook wall, tweet it, email it or just comment on this post but you only have 48 hours! Monday we will go and get the toys and then deliver them. How easy is that?!

If you want to help even more you can donate a toy yourself, it's simple and the details are all here

Thanks for your help and Happy Holidays to all!

PS- thanks to ShellyS for the use of the photo (via Flickr)!

Rita Mae at Henry's Beach in Santa Barbara Land

Our new favorite pastime is taking Rita Mae (AKA the ButterFuzz) to Santa Barbara Land for a long walk and game of fetch and slobber at Henry's Beach. Then we go visiting friends. See her in action!

Happy Anniversary Number Three

It's our anniversary! Hard to believe that three years have already gone by. In fact we have been married for 1097 days (thanks to the count up clock on our blog). Seems like just yesterday we were standing in Meg's parent's backyard surrounded by family and friends with the "Reverend" Deborah officiating. If you are really curious you can go back and relive the event so to speak in a series of posts I wrote starting with this one. If you are more visually inclined you can always check out some of the pics here.

We are having a great time and we are very thankful for each other and for all the lovely people in our lives who make ours so much better!

*I love this photo, taken just after we said our "I Do's"