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What’s In My Box?

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Today I’m waiting to hear delighted shouting and excitement from the phone or Facebook…. why? I ordered a CSA box for a family-in-need who just happens to be a friend of mine that recently moved to England. It is one of the fun little things that we have chosen to do this year to make the holidays a little less stressful and a bit more cheery.

Each year, I chose one or two families (or people, as the case may be) to give a few extra gifts to or provide something they really need. It may be paying one of their bills, or a giftcard for fuel, a cart full of groceries or even just toys for under the Christmas tree – either way, my husband and I always enjoy finding those people to help out and often try to do it in a silly or secretive way – even though they find out (often because we are bursting at the seams to find out what they thought!) it was us after all, it has been a really great tradition for each year that we have spent together.

One of our first years, I was taking care of a couple of kids whose parents had just finalized their divorced and moved into their own houses just before Christmas and while child support was paying for my nannying fees, the mother (whom they lived with primarily) was really unable to keep much food in the cabinets and in the fridge and certainly could not afford to put presents under the tree that year. As I really got to know the children, and realized they were having a rough time with the divorce and with the holidays coming up, I started making a list of all the things I would like to give them and consulted with my husband to narrow the list a bit.

Once we decided on a few toys and other bits and pieces, I took my youngest brother with me for that big shopping trip. We went from store to store in the mall, collecting t-shirts with their favorite characters, toys featuring their favorite hobbies and shows, a few school supplies, books (just because I love to read and I loved owning my own books at their age and very rarely did) and lastly, a few groceries.

My brother and I took them to a charitable gift wrapping station, set up in the mall, left a nice donation to whichever charity was offering to wrap gifts for free and took our large bundle straight to their house.

Once we arrived, the kids were jumping up and down with excitement and carrying each carefully wrapped package to be placed under their coffee table which is where they put their small, decorative Christmas tree. Immediately, the three-year-old began ripping the side of one of the gifts, unable to resist the shiny paper any longer. My brother quickly diverted his attention to the bags of groceries and he very excitedly put away his Scooby Doo mac & cheese and cans of Sponge Bob chicken noodle soup while his sister put away the milk, cheese, bread, eggs and veggies.

Needless to say, the mother was completely overwhelmed and so excited to see her children so excited! My brother was even smiling from ear to ear while he watched the kids run from the pantry to their Christmas tree, jumping and yelling at all of their “treasures!” He reached into his pocket and handed them each five dollars “to buy something they really wanted, or just a bunch of candy” and the three of us were very nearly turned deaf from the excited shouting from the kids.

This was going to be a Christmas they would remember.

And it made us really feel great to make the holidays a little more special for a family who needed a little bit of love and help that year.

It really makes a difference when you can see the results of your thoughtfulness and efforts. In previous years, various school clubs and jobs have found a family whose house was burned down or experienced some other type of grief where we were asked to donate new clothes, towels and other household goods to help them get back on their feet. These were great things to help out with also because there would often be a little get together at work to wrap all the gifts and then take them over all at once to give the family – so we showed up unannounced and you could watch the smiles, tears and excitement knowing each person in that family would have clothes & gifts for Christmas to distract them, even if for a little while from the tragedy that had struck their family.

This year, it was a little harder to find someone to help, but in the end we managed to find a few people and why not a large box full of fresh fruits and veggies??? We even included a baked treat, bread, eggs and milk! It took a little doing to find out how to get the CSA delivered to them and paid for, but now that we have, we just cant wait to find out how they liked it!

Are you doing anything charitable this holiday season? I’d love to hear about it! Next year, we will be assembling a few boxes to mail off to kids in need in Africa! I just found out how to go about doing it and was a little too late this year, but next year, we will be prepared!

Anyways, on to this week’s box!

What We Received: 

  • Carrots
  • Turnips
  • Romanesco Cauliflower
  • Broccoli
  • Tomatoes
  • Salad Greens
  • Bag of Spuds (not pictured)
  • Butternut squash (not pictured)

What We Made:

The Romanesco cauliflower has easily become our favorite of the cauliflowers and became a cauliflower soup for a French Fridays assignment. the turnips are still awaiting their demise, as is the butternut squash!

I had the salad greens with bits of cucumber & tomato for a couple lunches alongside a salad. Mei ate the rest of them – she is back to eating the whole tomato!

The carrots & potatoes went to our Italian beef roast on Sunday and the broccoli was served steamed as a side to a separate crock pot meal.

Food Fact of the Day: Lettuces are traveling further and further. Even though the UK is able to grow lettuce year-round, imports have increased to 47%! Nearly a quarter of all the lettuce imported to the UK comes from Spain.


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