So, there are 9 days before Christmas, and I know that many of you are still working down the list of gifts to buy :D In the past few days, Nicole Price @ Great Prices Here has shared some interesting discounted gifts — so you could stretch your dollar a little more and get more gifts for more people!

On another note, Liz Strauss @ Successful Blog has put together 3 Grant-A-Wish packages up for grabs this festive season:

• a Toshiba wide screen portable DVD player and 11 DVD movies, all made in Chicago,
• some really cool tools such as laser measuring tools, LED flashlight and safety glasses, and
• iPod Touch, Olympus digital camera and Moleskin notebook (gulps! I want!)

To win one of those packages, you will need to either leave Liz Strauss a comment, or tweet a message announcing the contest or write a blog post about it.

Now, another thing that you could give is the gift of :heart: LOVE :heart: You could get one of these pretty HEART4HOPE T-shirts from Yvonne Foong at a discounted price! All proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts go to Yvonne’s NF Trust Fund.

The HEART4HOPE T-shirts are now going at RM 15 each, instead of the normal price of RM 25 each. Postage to anywhere in Malaysia is only RM 5 (per kilogram) by Pos Laju.

What better gift to give than the gift of :heart: LOVE :heart: ??

POVERTY is one of those words that we often associate with some South African countries. It brings an image of some skinny-starving children in some villages on a faraway desert. It reminds us to finish our food and vegetables however much we dislike them, because somewhere far away, somebody’s going to bed hungry.

POVERTY is one of those words that really does not mean anything to us because we are such fortunate people.

But that shouldn’t stop us from doing something. If you’re looking for some ideas on what YOU, as an individual can do to stop poverty, here’s a list of 88 ways to do something about poverty. Go on and pick something from the list and do it. Or you could think about something new and add it onto the list.

Whatever it is, just do something. Because by taking action, some kids will have some food tonight before they go to bed.

I am going to write 2-3 posts on poverty per week on The Giving Hands, and if you’re interested, I would like to invite you to join me in changing the conversation :D

Frankly, I don’t know what to write about yet, but as with many other things, I am sure we can figure it out along the way :vodka: