Having taken a year away for the holidays I knew in the summer that I wanted to spend Christmas and New Years in New Jersey. Linds and I parted ways in December for the next few weeks to spend the holidays on opposite coasts. Even though apart, we continued our path as givers and found new ways to give this holiday season along with continuing our yearly traditions. In the beginning of December, with our newest honorary Gypsy, Greg alongside me, we held our third annual coat drive. Once again we partnered with The Newton Theatre and local band, From Good Homes. We bundled up in layers and embraced the below freezing temps and collected coats. This year the coats were distributed locally.

Greg joined me for weekly food pantry visits at the Bodhi Monastery, which is like a second home to the gypsies. We gifted bikes to kids and adults, who happily still want to act like kids. We distributed Christmas trees to those who couldn’t afford one. (Why are they so expensive?) A tree was even donated to our little cabin, our first Christmas tree!

A long time friend took on an entire family’s Christmas wish list, collected donations from her colleagues, and bought every single item plus more on their list! Thanks, Ali!

Meanwhile on the West Coast—

We shared our holiday cheer with our West Coast family in the Los Angeles area.  Enjoying the sunshine and warmer temperatures Logan and I were able to fit in trips to the beach and of course, clean-ups while teaching my little nieces the importance of cleaning up the beach they spend almost every day at. It was great answering all their questions and having some fun in the sun. It’s as if we have little gypsies in the making!

En route to be reunited with Mel and Greg in Indonesia, we made one more pit stop in Hawaii to visit more family. Hawaii is such an amazing place, the mountains and beach always leave people in awe. What also left us in awe was how many times I mistakenly thought plastic particles were shells. To the naked eye the beach looks beautiful, but up close it is extremely sad what a terrifying problem we have on this planet. We joined another lady in doing our part in the clean-up. She said it is much better than it used to be. We will consciously try to make a choice when we can to choose non-plastic and reusable products.

A few days later we had a missile threat in Hawaii that put many things into perspective, mainly how important doing good is, being with family is and how precious life is. Being scared like never before Logan and I were ready to make some moves. We headed from Hawaii at the same time Mel and Greg left NJ. We flew in opposite directions around the world to South East Asia to reunite and continue our Gypsy Giver mission.