My husband and I are going to my church's shoebox party tonight. Every November the congregation gets together to fill shoeboxes with gifts for kids overseas. You've probably heard of it, Operation Christmas Child http://www.samaritanspurse.org/home.asp" title="http://www.samaritanspurse.org/home.asp" target="_blank"http://www.samaritanspurse.or....

I haven't set foot in the church of my childhood for...golly...I'd say at least 10 years. I'm just not a churchy person. But everyone's really nice and I feel a bit guilty that they've never met my husband. Even though I hadn't been to church in ages, they were adamant about having a bridal shower for me because I'd done so much work with the Sunday school in my university days.

So, we're off there tonight, armed with a big bag of dollar store toys and school supplies. It's a fun way to get the festive season started, even if I'm not quite ready for it yet (since we've already had our Thanksgiving, the Christmas hoopla started November 1, we don't even get a bit of a cushion). And I love to buy toys and hate the thought of kids going without at Christmas. So hopefully this will bring some cheer to at least a couple of little folks.

(I must say, though, I've had the song Shoebox by Barenaked Ladies in my head all week.)