**November Deadline to join in on the fun!

With the holiday season fast approaching, I wanted to tell you about an organization I volunteer for each year. It's called Hugs & Hope!

The Hugs and Hope Club for Sick Kids is a ministry devoted to encouraging children battling critical illness and their families.

*The HUGS and HOPE Club provides the rare gift of friendship: a listening ear, a sympathetic heart.*

Our mission is to share God's love and provide friendship and support to families of sick children who live within the United States by sending happy mail and offering various activities to children between the ages of 2 and 17.

* Mailing cheery cards (a.k.a. "happy mail")

* Providing balloon bouquets to hospitalized children

* Granting children's wishes

* Providing Christmas gifts through our Elf Project

* Assigning a personal "parent pal" who encourages, cheers, and supports the family in crisis.

This will be my 3rd or 4th (can't remember) year being a Christmas Elf for Hugs & Hope! Families with a sick child often spend most of their money on medical care and don't have a lot of money to spend on their kids for Christmas. Hugs & Hugs created Christmas Elf to make sure EACH sick child and EACH of their siblings receive a Christmas Stocking AND Christmas presents each year! Isn't that wonderful? Every child is assigned a Stocking Elf & a Presents Elf!

This year, I'm a Stocking Elf for 15-year-old twins whose younger sister suffers from Batten's Disease. I'm currently having a lot of fun shopping on etsy for unique, handmade items for their stocking, like these adorable soaps from AJ Sweet Soap!

Wouldn't being a Christmas Elf for Hugs & Hope be a good way to get the whole family involved in the joy of GIVING this Holiday Season? Not everyone may celebrate Christmas, but most families celebrate some sort of winter holiday. Joining together to help someone else teaches children and adults, alike, the spirit of good will.

To become a Christmas Elf:

Carefully read over the requirements & instructions before and make sure you can FOLLOW THROUGH before committing to the project.
Decide whether you want to be a Stocking Elf or a Present Elf. Decide how many children you want to sponsor.
Email Autumn to become a Christmas Elf for Hugs & Hope. Tell her how many kids you want to sponsor & which kind of elf you want to be.
She will assign you a specific child(ren) and give you a list of items they like.
Go shop & wrap the presents.
Your gifts MUST be in the mail by December 4th.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!