A Very Merry Eve eve

It's a white Christmas this year! Though it is starting to melt and get sort of dirty and nasty. I'm actually pretty ready for it to melt. It's a tradition in my family to open presents on Christmas Eve eve, so tonight was our giving night.

Instead of doing normal shopping and gift-giving presents this year with my family, we donated to different charities in each other's names. I was very excited to do this, because I didn't get to volunteer my time to stuff stockings like I wanted to. I found it great to look and see what local charities there were and to sort of match them up with my parents and with my brother Lee and his fiancee, Kelley.

For my parents we donated in their name to Scholarship America; my parents are both the first generation in their families to go to college, so they know the value of education and how hard it is for young people to do it. Also I remember during this financial class I took with my mom a long while ago, we were asked to write down a ton of goals and what we'd want to do with our cash if we had a choice, and I vaguely remember one of her goals was to set up a scholarship, which was something I didn't know and surprised me so I remembered it. For my bro and Kelley, we donated in their name to Fare Start, which is a very cool charity in Seattle that takes people who are homeless and helps them with job training in the culinary world so they might have the chance to change their own lives. With Lee and Kelley both being foodies, both love Seattle, and their giving nature, this was perfect for them.

That being said, Grunty the snow elf wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!