Operation Gratitude

Jordan has never been too interested in candy, sure he enjoys cakes, cookies, and ice cream but candy not so much. Well, one day we heard an advertisement of a dentist office that had a deal... you can come in and sell him your candy $1 a pound up to 5 pounds. The boys eyes lit up! They would prefer legos or a toy over candy any day- however we could not find a single dentist in the area that has a program like that so we decided to do it ourselves. Let me tell you it adds up quickly especially if one forgets to set a limit! Anyway, we keep some goodies for Christmas gingerbread houses, teachers gifts , and to indulge if we are having a bad day. Then we found operation gratitude. The dentist does buy the candy but then sends it overseas. It is such a great program and it was wonderful to be a part of it. We truly enjoyed writing a special message to the soldier. Now in the depths of war a soldier can enjoy a treat from home. After all, we really don't need it. I am so glad that we decided to do this. If you are interested you can log on to www.halloweencandybuyback.com to find a participating dentist in your area. Now don't feel badly for my boys - Jordan collected 12 pounds of candy Halloween night and Aidan 7 so there was plenty to go around and I still owe them a few $$ a deal is a deal. Noah kept his candy he only went trick or treating for about 40 mins. , Aidan kept a pound of his favorite and then we gave some to operation gratitude about 10 pounds worth! We still have some we are saving for the holidays or a treat. It was a win win for everyone!! The best part of it was as we were walking away from the dentist office -the boys turned to me and said "Mom, that felt really good"- it was a priceless moment.

Below are some comments I received on facebook:

Travis Hall: "Tell the boys thank you. I will make sure if any candy comes our way that it ends up in the hands of some good kids. Say hello to everyone for me. Couple more months."

Margherita Lamanno: "That is AWESOME! What a great parent you are for educating them and opening them up to helping/caring for others! You ROCK and I am proud of the boys!"

Gretchen Parris Bernasek: "That's great! Our soldiers love to get treats while they are over there.....At least Joel loved to when he was over in Oman for Christmas and Thanksgiving."