The gloves have been donated!

I really don't think that Alex could be any happier than he was after school today.

We didn't get a chance to drop the gloves off before school for a couple of reasons - one might have had something to do with the fact that I hadn't showered yet...so I dumped him at the door and went back home.

I had gotten the oil changed in the van this afternoon, so The Dude was hanging out with me and we went to pick Alex up from school together. When we got there we went down to Alex's room to get him and to return a book that his teacher needed, and I handed him the bag of gloves.

He took them up to the office, and he was thrilled when the school secretary told him that he could put them on the tree himself.

Of course, after he did that, we had to search the Lost & Found for his own missing glove (only one, mind you) and then wander down to the cafeteria to find his lost sweatshirt. That kid would forget his head if he wasn't attached - not sure if that's genetic, but forgetting things seems to be a familiar trait for some reason....

Still, forgetful or not, I'm so proud of him. I don't know that he completely understands what making a donation like this means, but I know from personal experience that it will be appreciated by the person on the receiving end. Over the past several years especially, my kids and I would not have had anything for Christmas several times had it not been for the generosity of strangers.

Seriously, there was one Christmas where I did not have the money to get my kids anything. ANYTHING. I could barely keep the utilities connected, and only had food through the food stamp program. I was working, but I just couldn't keep up with everything.

Did my choices lead me to that point? Yep. So don't even bother lecturing me on that one.

The point is that my kids had one of the best Christmases ever thanks to the generosity of strangers. They got more that year than probably any other year of their lives. It was incredible. The donor was anonymous, so I had no way to thank him or her or them, other than an (also) anonymous letter to the editor in the newspaper.

Things are still tight for us, money-wise. But nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I can keep the utilities on and the van payment current and the roof over our head - and we are no longer on food stamps. We have a little bit left over most months - sometimes less than I would like - but we are so much better off than we were even a year ago.

I know that buying a few inexpensive pairs of gloves does not even begin to pay forward what we have received in the past - but knowing that my kids want to do things like this makes me one proud mom. They don't know the full details of how bleak our finances were, but they know that we had help. Someday, I'll explain it to them when they are old enough to understand. Right now, I'm just happy that they want to help someone else that might need it.