On Tuesday I read stories to my daughter’s preschool class. More on reading and the importance of early literacy in a later post…
I chose to read The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak because it is hilarious, and it makes my daughter howl laughing no matter how many times we read it. In full disclosure, I did read the line “boo boo butt” in its entirety and was not quick enough on my feet to think to change it to “boo boo head.” To the parents whose three-year olds who came home saying “boo boo butt,” I apologize.
The other book I read was Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by James Dean and Eric Litwin. We are big fans of Pete the Cat at our house, and this book gets to the heart of my post. Santa is feeling under the weather, so he asks Pete to hop off his surfboard, load up his mini-bus (!) with presents, and start delivering. Pete loves to sing, and his mantra throughout this book is that, “although I am small, at Christmas we give, so I’ll give it my all.”
I promise I’m about to tie it all together. At Christmas, we give. We give a lot, and most of us are doing it online. The YWCA has registries set up on Amazon and Target for the items we most need to support our clients, such as sheets, towels, mattress pad covers, and blankets. I am looking at the Amazon list as I type, and all items are eligible for Prime, and each is less than $40.
If you find yourself doing some last-minute online shopping, please consider one more click to your shopping cart for an item or two that will help provide a new start for someone who might not have had a blanket or set of towels of her own for quite some time. An extra $15 could give a fuzzy, warm fleece blanket that would bring a lot of Christmas cheer.
Although we are small, at Christmas we give, so give it your all. Groovy!
Whitney Simpson serves on YWCA’s Board of Directors, and is a Visiting Professor in the Wake Forest University School of Business.
