Each November, our church hosts an alternative gift market. There are a number of organizations with wish lists and donations cards or items that can be purchased instead of the usual “stuff” that most people done even need. This year we had Heifer International, Habitat for Humanity, a local women’s shelter, Ten Thousand Villages, and the local food bank giving tree. I always try to get a tag from the giving tree since we don’t have young children to buy toys for right now. As I looked at the tags I noticed one for a girl, age 7. She was asking for a Bratz doll. My first reaction is – No way! Those things are so ugly. But then I stopped and thought, who am I to tell a seven-year old girl that she cannot have this one thing she wants? Her parents had to fill out the gift request form so it would not be a surprise to them. It would be a good stretch for me to focus on this young girl and what she wanted instead of feeling good because I was making a donation. So I grabbed that tag and headed off to the store. Imagine my surprise when I did not find one single Bratz doll at my local Target! Sold out? So now I would even need to go out of my way to make this gift a reality for this young girl. I did a bit of online searching and found a store that wasn’t too far off my route to a meeting I was attending. It was hard to choose which doll. Most of them were skimpily clad, a bit too sexy I thought. And not inexpensive either. Then I turned the corner and saw this princess version on the end cap. She is actually kind of cute with her pink dress and lacy tights. I am glad I stretched. I think this might be the most meaningful giving tree gift I have purchased in a long time.
As I was preparing the fruit for what we are calling pseudo-pie, I noticed that it looked rather patriotic so I snapped a picture. My cutting board got quite a work-out this morning – now we are off for a family feast. 
lining up my words 