We didn't Christmas Shop at Wal-Mart this Year!

One small change that I was happy about this year is that we did not step foot into Wal-Mart or Target (our usual M.O.) for any of our Christmas shopping.  We took one evening at home, and went on a website with our kids called The Hunger Site

We were able to pick out cool, unique, fair trade, meaningful gifts, and a portion of the cost went to feeding programs around the world.  Some of the items we bought for friends and family were a little storage box (perfect for the desk) made out of recycled motherboard, a journal made by women learning a paper making business to escape the sex trade, hand-crafted tree ornaments made from recycled oil drums in Haiti, and the list goes on!

"In Haiti, where recycled steel oil drums are a valuable source of metal, the artisans of Croix des Bouquets fashion amazing works of metal art that leave no carbon footprint. 55-gallon drums dumped there have been turned into art supplies by the residents since in the 1950s. They're cut and purified with straw fires that burn out the residue. Once cleaned, the artisans use hammer and chisel to work them by hand, as the lack of electricity during the day makes power tools impossible." ~ The Hunger Site

Plus, we didn't have to brave the pre-Christmas, crazy, crowds!