Giving to Others ~ Donating Toys

This year I'm trying to focus a little more on Giving Opportunities that you and your family can participate in - no matter where you live. Each week starting November 27th I will be featuring at least 1 charity or program you can participate in.

One of the things I got to thinking about today was that everyone is participating in the Black Friday & Cyber Monday events - there are so many sales and specials right now and we receive wonderful discounts. Why not buy a toy or two for someone in need at the same time? You can have it shipped with your items and save a little on shipping too!

I was visiting with Heather Weiss whom I met online recently and she is a Discovery Toys Independent Consultant who likes to use her business to help out others.  She very generously offered 3 of the Story Stackers to review and GIVE to our local Open Door Mission for their annual toy drive. Thank you so much Heather!

The Story Stackers is a 9 piece stacking system that encourages  eye-hand coordination, sequencing, thinking skills, numeration, colors, geometric shapes and size relativity. Best of all toddlers love the bright colors and the FUN of playing with it. It's sturdy, made of wood, comes with the stand, colored discs and 3 wooden heads (a chicken, a pig and a cow).

There are many other toys through Discovery Toys that you can purchase for your children to play with - or if your kid's are to old for Discovery Toys you can donate a few toys to your local mission, children's hospital, church (they have families they know who have needs.) There are so many ways you can give - just ask around and I'm sure someone can give you some direction.

You may be interested in:
The Open Door Mission (how you can help)

Shop: www.toyboxideas.com
To Order: info@fortwaynediscoverytoys.com


Follow along:

Coming soon.... Don't Miss It!

Hi everyone!

Holiday Traditions

will be open for business

October 1st!

It's time for another year of

Sales, Black Friday,

Shopping and more....


Oh yeah, link up your creative
holiday decor ideas, recipes, craft ideas,
gift ideas & giveaways on
Friday's too!

So, Are you ready?

Be sure to come back October 1st!


PS: would you like to add my button to your sidebar?
(I'd be really thrilled if you did)



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Today's Blog Hops:  

Be sure to visit the Christmas Giveaway Extravaganza!

Hi friends,


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed being with family and eating lots of YUMMY food.  I'm sure you'll work it all off this weekend.  As you can see I've been a busy beaver this week and had to call on Santa's elves to help me finish up for our 1st Annual Black Friday Open House.  Be sure to click on the button to start your visit with Holiday Traditions.... 


...  and when you're done go on over to the Christmas Giveaway Extravaganza and check out all of their giveaways.  She has some really neat ones:

   

Review/Giveaway The Night Before Christmas...... in Africa!

This giveaway is Closed - thanks for joining in!

Click here to listen to Clip

The Night Before Christmas in Africa

by Jesse, Hannah and Carroll Foster

Illustrated by Jean Christodoulou

The Night Before Christmas in Africa is a delightful take on the old story "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  The poetry of the story has the same sing-song quality but the story is truly different.  The characters are African's from a tribe living in the desert and longing for rain but can Santa really bring rain - let's find out!

Summary of the book:
On the arid South African plain, families sleep on the floor mats waiting for Father Christmas to arrive with his bag of goodies.  However, members of the Shangaan tribe only wish for simple items such as candy, soccer balls and chickens during the holiday season.

(Note: what a difference from our yearly wishes for commercial items such as the Wii, the newest toys and things we seriously don't need.  Hmmm?)

They long for relief from the hot, dry climate, but they dare not bother the man in red with such a large request.  When his donkey cart arrives, pulled by kudu and a black rhinoceros, Father Christmas is willing to try.  Don't American children wish for snow on Christmas?

Written by a mother and her 2 children (who live in Africa), this book and the beautiful illustrations show life in Africa.  With traditional garments, daily life is shown in pictures, actual african words taken from several of the African languages and you actually see the children dreaming about monkeys that chatter and roar.

This story began as a family Christmas project when the Foster children, Hannah and Jesse, asked why there were no stories about Christmas in Africa. They took a family favorite poem, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and adapted it to the climate and culture of Africa. The story grew over months. The kudu were named after friends in Hannah’s grade 4 class, the gifts were all Jesse’s contribution, and mom Carroll put it all together.

Time went by and next door neighbor Jean Christodoulou heard about the story and offered her artistic talents to illustrate. Each picture was a work of art and it seemed the time had come to share this story with the world.

The CD:The story needed ‘telling’ with sounds and songs and a beautiful rich deep African narrator voice. Victor Masondo and Joe Arthur put their talents into creating the narration and sound track and the Sparrow Foundation School choir sang the traditional songs. Ed Jordan’s ‘African Christmas’ adds the finishing touch to this celebration of the wonder and beauty of Christmas and Africa.

Sparrow Foundation Schools:Each book sold contributes to the education of a remedial student at this amazing school in Johannesburg SA. For more information on the school and how you can be involved go to www.sparrowschools.co.za.

To purchase the book & CD ($11.99), go to: Night Before Christmas in Africa, The (Night Before Christmas Series)

Pelican Publishing has generously offered 4 of my readers a copy of the book (sans CD).  Here's what you can do to enter:

Manditory: (pls choose 1 or both and let me know which)
Follow Holiday Traditions blog on GFC and leave a comment here with your sign on name & email.  (You can add it like this:  contact(dot)thebooklady(at)gmail.com to avoid spambots)
OR
Add this button to your blog (preferably your sidebar if possible) to let others know about my Black Friday Open House!  Thanks so much for your support!  Please return and leave me the link on your page where you put it.





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Optional:  (Note you can do ALL or NONE of these) 

• Follow Pelican Publishing on Facebook
• Follow Pelican Publishing on Twitter 
• Follow Family Literacy and Twitter and Tweet up 2x's a day for +2 entries each (4 hours apart pls): "Black Friday Giveaways @familyliteracy http://tiny.cc/yi7as Christmas Music, children's books, & more! #giveaways, #kids, #family, #literacy"
• Follow Family Literacy and post a comment about the Holiday Traditions Open House (on your FB page) about Black Friday's awesome event (include a link back here in your post) on Facebook - leave a comment for me with the link to find it.

This drawing will take place on Black Friday (11/27) around 10 pm by random.org.  The winner will have 48 hours to respond with their address (no PO Boxes pls) and must not have been drawn for any other giveaways from Pelican Publishing within the last 90 days, sorry this drawing is limited to the US. I received a copy of the Night Before Christmas book for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Be sure to add these dates to your calendar NOW!

Most of you know that Holiday Traditions is sponsoring some awesome giveaway events over Thanksgiving and you might want to set the dates on your calendar.  Things are wrapping up and will be ready to go here in the next week hopefully and then it will start rolling....  So, here goes:

12 Days of Christmas

11/24 - Dec 8th

Sponsored by: Spice Hunter, Arbonne, Usborne Books, Hearthsong, Add More Color (Calendars), Plow and Hearth, Ann Clark Cookie Cutters, 1-2-3 Get Organized, Authors or Books: Cheryl Malandrinos, The Wild Soccer Bunch

Sponsored by: Cool gifts to give your Winter Holidays a Jump Start!  

Christmas music, holiday books for your family's to share, a little spiced apple cider or rum

What MORE could YOU want?

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