Good morning!! How is your week going so far? I am a little tired after a long road trip yesterday for work, but hey, it is almost Christmas so I am feeling great!  Last weekend was one for the books so I will tell you all about it!

On Friday night my little brother had a sleepover at our house!  The boys played video games, we made pizza, ate cookies and stayed up too late!  They had a blast!! Jon is going to be the BEST dad one day.  He is one of a kind.  

Saturday morning I got a much needed haircut then rushed home to set up for our Holiday Party for a Cause!  Jon and I were wanting to have a Christmas party this year since we have a lot of family and friends in Nashville, but my heart was calling me to do more.  I have had the idea of filling backpacks for the homeless in my head for awhile and I thought that the idea to combine the Christmas party and charity event was perfect!  

We invited all our friends and family and gave them a list of items that needed fulfilled.  We bought 50 backpacks, but we needed some help filling them for distribution to the homeless around Nashville.  Our friends brought crackers, chapsticks, gum, lotion, wash cloths, sausage, cookies, muffins, granola bars, floss, toothbrushes and toothpaste.  

They also brought McDonalds giftcards, wet wipes, muffins, waters, deodorant, tissues, scarves, pens, and notepads.  

They brought socks, hand warmers and combs. 

I literally get tears in my eyes when I think about how amazing our friends are.  They all showed up to contribute to our event.  Even the ones who couldn’t make it, dropped off items beforehand so that they could be a part of giving back to those in need.  

We ended up with a LOT of stuff.  I was worried it wouldn’t all fit in the bags.  🙂 

After everyone arrived, my mom had us play a little icebreaker game.  She made us all stand in a circle and passed out scratch off lottery tickets randomly.  She read the Christmas Story out loud and when she would read the word “right” we all passed the cards to the person to our right and then she would read “left” and we all passed the cards to the left.  At the end of the story, the people with the lottery cards in their hands were the winners! 🙂 

Who’s gonna win!?!?!?

After the game, we all got in line and grabbed a bag to walk around the room and start filling! 

Around and around we went to fill the bags!

With all the people who showed up to help, the bags were filled in no time!

Little Cooper was exhausted from watching all the bags get filled! 😉 

We have the most generous and sweet friends ever!

After we finishing filling 60 50 bags we had some drinks and munchies!

Jon and I plan to hand out the bags on Christmas eve and Christmas day around Nashville with my sister and her boyfriend.  I know there will be some very happy people around town!  My heart is so full and so happy knowing how many people were willing to help us with our little idea.  Jon and I have already discussed how we want to do this again next year and make it an even bigger event and fill even more bags!  

We plan to document the distribution of all the bags around Nashville so stay tuned for another post coming your way!  Thank you to all our friends for helping us give back to those less fortunate this holiday season.  Your generosity will never be forgotten.  xoxo