Give a little bit . . .

Well as it turns out I am going to save the Stocking post for another day so we can talk about Operation Christmas Child. Each year in early November I put together a shoebox or two (or four) as part of the mission of Operation Christmas Child. I fill my boxes with gifts both practical (tooth brush and tooth paste, soap and a fancy washcloth, pens and note books) and fun (this year I found fun wood bead necklace kits and am kinda bummed I didn't pick one up for myself) toss in a little candy and a card with a Christmas greeting. It is so much fun and such and easy thing to do for an afternoon that can make a big statement to a child. See I look at it this way, I get to kick off my holiday season with a focus on giving, but more importantly a child some place far or near knows, on Christmas day, that they are valued and loved by someone they will never meet.

You still have time if you would like to join in on all the shoebox fun and really it is very fun! Collection starts this weekend, you can find out more about the program by following the link above and look up your local drop off places.

Hey, what does that mean?

You know those phrases and words that sound totally awesome, but you don't exactly know what they mean. I've been trying to pull together a list of them, and I though hey maybe the blog world (Ha like the blog word even knows who I am!) would benefit from my newly expanded vocabulary. So here we go; I keep running into the phrase: "Mad Money" and of course I had to know what it meant.

With the help of good old google I found the definition:

Slang

A small sum of money for unlikely contingencies.

But the real question is how did it come to mean that? So back to googling I go. So apparently the term "Mad Money" first came into use in the early 20's and described money that a girl would carry in case she got into a row with her date and wanted to take herself home. Hence the "Mad". By the 40's a second meaning had come in to use, it was also used to describe a small amount of money kept by a girl/woman for small, frivolous or spur of the moment perches.

So now that you know go ahead and hid a twenty the coffee can not for a rainy day, but for when you just can't bring yourself to make dinner or get into a row and need to take a cab home!

(I wish I could tell you were the above image came from, but I don't remember - Sorry!)