WE DID IT!!!

I opened the inbox with trepidation this morning. Would today be the day? Did some more generous hearts join our cause? Four emails with donations. Holding my breath, I opened them all, checked the numbers, added, then re-added.

WE DID IT! 

To date, Christmas Wishes, has donated $510 to Toys for Tots. But, we were just a vehicle to get it there. It is because of the efforts of writers willing to donate their time, and readers willing to open their wallets, that we've been able to do so much so far. So, it makes me wonder-- how much more?

There is still approximately eight and a half days left until we close the door for donations and deliver the compilation to Santa for his distribution. If only 5 people a day would donate the minimum $5 donation from now until then we could come really close to 150% of our initial goal. If it were 10 people we could double it! I know, I know. I can see you all shaking your heads and thinking-- We always knew she was crazy.  Well.....I plead the fifth on that. 

BUT...

In the 18 months I've been a part of this fandom, I have continued to be overwhelmed by the unbridled generosity that exists amongst men and women who rarely know each other personally, but do not hesistate to call each other friends. So, my friends, I'd like to share with a story as to why I HAD to organize this compilation this year.

Ten years ago, I lost one of the most important people in my life. My stepfather died in a trucking accident while working. Explaining Dad to people is almost impossible for me to do, but suffice to say, he was one of the bravest men I ever knew. Not because he had been in the Navy, not because he served several tours in-country in Vietnam. Nope. He was the bravest man in the world, because at 38 years old, having never had any children of his own, he married my mom and instantly inherited not one, but two teenage daughters. He took to the challenge like he did everything else in life-- head on and without hesitation.

Every year, he made huge donations to Toys4Tots. It seemed like, if we were in a store that had a donation box, he bought a toy to put in it, even if it was just a Hot Wheels car or a small Barbie. It was only after he passed that I knew why. When he had been a child growing up in Texas, on more than one Christmas, his Santa had come courtesy of a man in a Marine uniform, from Toys4Tots. All his gifts had been his way of paying forward the Christmases he wouldnt have had himself.

In the years since he's passed, Mom has kept that alive by donating toys in Dad's memory, spending everything she would have spent on his gifts, were he still alive. Because of him, we rarely miss a donation box when we are in a store. And, because of him, in honor of the man he was, and because there is so little I could do myself, I tried to find some other way I could honor him.

So Christmas Wishes was born. All my efforts, are done in the memory of a man who, in the words of Charles Dickens:

"And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge."

Thank you, everyone who has contributed in any way, whether through time, talent, or finance. They are all the words I have, but know, they come with every bit of my heart wrapped around them.