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| Montserrat. Not our picture unfortunately. Google it. Seriously amazing. |
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. We usually host a Halloween open house and this year I invited both Isaac and Emma's classes. It was pretty fun to see all the little kids dressed up. And some of the adults too! Isaac was Captain America (here wearing some goofy glasses) and Emma was Rapunzel. Fun! If you are ever in Billings for Halloween, the door is open!
Nate is going to a conference this weekend in Houston for the National Myotonic Dystrophy Association with his Dad. There have been some breakthroughs in research in the recent years and they are going to the conference to hopefully learn more about clinical trial opportunities. It's exciting to think that there is something that could potentially slow if not stop progression of his disease (still not a cure), but I'm always a little leery of clinical trials. So any prayers and happy thoughts are welcome!
Speaking of conferences, I was recently in Miami at a conference to present some of my research about patient outcomes after the closure of a comprehensive health program with which I was working. The research was well received and I'm now working on publishing. Like a boss.
For our Christmas exchange this year, I wanted to propose we all put whatever money we would have used to get a gift for our cousin, sister, brother, whatever and put towards a nice family donation to a charity of some kind. To be honest, I LOVE!!! Christmas, but this time of year, I start hyperventilating a little bit thinking about how to organize all the "stuff" that we are going to get. Not to say I don't love presents and all the wonderful, thoughtful gifts we/I have gotten over the years, but I really feel I have enough "stuff" and would rather see my gift go to someone that could really use some help. I would also suggest we do a "local" charity - at least something that helps people in Montana. I know there are people all over the world in need, but I think we can all think of families in our own communities who need help. Perhaps we could throw around some ideas for charities? Thoughts?
So that's us. The kids are fine. Love seeing everyone's updates on here and hope we can all meet up somewhere down the road - holidays, weddings, 90th birthday celebrations, or just a knock at the door. Love you all!
8 comments:
Miranda!! What a fun vacation and I LOVE your Halloween picture. And I think your charity idea is absolutely brilliant. I feel the exact same way - even about getting my kids Christmas presents! I would love it if someone even knew of one particular family in need and we could all pitch in and provide for them. I love sending gifts and getting gifts, I do! But I think that we all have pretty blessed lives and doing some good in the world, outside of ourselves,is really what Christmas is all about. Brilliant idea. I hope that everyone is in! (No wonder your research went so well, you have such great ideas!)
Great update, Miranda. Good to see a couple pix from your European trip. Your Halloween tradition sounds great, too – far better than door-to-door begging. I really like your idea for Christmas, although I imagine deciding the ONE charity or ONE family would be a long process. I suggest people put their chosen charity on their wish lists; whoever draws their name can then donate in that person's honor. It's easy to do. And very much in the spirit of Christmas.
I really like your charity idea, Miranda! I love that you are publishing like a boss. Research is not easy to out together! Nice work!
Miranda, I love your idea of a charity but agree with Johnny (possibly for the first time ever) that it should be a choice of the recipient. I have my favorite in Helena as I am sure others do! If you would like to do something more towards people, there are Giving Trees everywhere - we have one at St. Mary's. We were going to be drawing soon, so I hope everyone has their input here and follows through!!
The thing I liked about Miranda's idea is that it simplifies things AND accomplishes a good deed at the same time. Most of us already list a charity and I know that a lot of us do contribute as gift giving. But it just seems so cool to combine our Moore forces and instead of lots of little (although wonderful) donations - do one big thing. If we just had one person coordinate the money - and everyone just had one place to send a check for all of their family gift giving, I just think there is something really neat about that. I imagine that Ann (at Food Share) or Jan (with Saint Mary's) know of a family in need. Or even if we did pick a charity, if we just rotated it each year, I can't imagine that being too hard to do. We can use the democratic system of voting - easy, we all believe in democracy. We could also rotate the person who collects the money each year to spread the deed.
We just need to hear from Moore of you. :)
I struggle with the Christmas season every year...starting out the season with the thought that this year I am going to donate more, help more, spend less etc. I really love the idea of a Moore family contribution to a charity and rotating that charity every year. Or Hannah's other idea of helping a family in need...I am sure I could find a couple (that way we are not setting a bar so high for one family that it will never be reached again, something that always worries me). Then we still have the fun of shopping for those that love to shop and wrapping gifts for those who love to wrap. Anyway, that is my two cents. I know the guy in charge of St. Vincent d'Paul here in GF and I am sure he would help us out if that is the direction we want to go.
Moore Power!!
I like the idea of rotating a family/charity annually as well. We could choose a donation to a charity that serves many purposes (more a Lost & Foundation route).
We need to decide something this week so that we know which way to move with drawing names. For all of you whose children did not respond I think it needs to be done! Let's get crackin' on this!
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