Thanks to Walmart, this year Audrey Grace and I were able to start a new tradition – a tradition of giving.

In my role as one of the Walmart Moms, Walmart equipped me with a $100 gift card and a mission – shop for toys to donate to the charity of my choosing. We’ve done a lot of Holiday projects with Walmart this season, but I have to say that I was most excited about this one and Walmart’s Hunger Initiative.

Audrey Grace and I made our way to Walmart late one evening to shop for the toys. She was so excited to find some special things for “her kids” as she put it. Wanting to encourage a giving spirit in the heart of my daughter (who will be so blessed this holiday season, as she has been in the past), I allowed her to choose the toys all by herself. As a result, every item that she chose was geared towards little girls, but I liked the idea that each items was chosen with love by my daughter, as if she was choosing a present for a friend.

I tried my best to help Audrey Grace to stretch our gift card as far as we could, but in the end she had the ultimate say-so. Even so, you can see that we easily filled a basket with toys and we only went $5 over our $100 budget, even with buying some of the season’s hottest toys. $100 really gets you far at Walmart (and trust me, as a mom on a budget I’ve checked toy prices everywhere this year!) – further than any place else I have found this Holiday Season – so it made the most sense for us to shop there, even if Walmart hadn’t sponsored our trip!

Check out the video of Audrey during our Toy Haul below! We donated all of the toys to a local Toys for Tots headquarters, and Audrey Grace proudly marched in to put all of the toys in the proper bins.

In the end, I decided that we will continue this tradition next year – with or without a gift card from Walmart. We will return to our local store and choose toys to donate to local children in need because in the end, the Holidays are about giving. In all honesty, the opportunity to give is one of the best gifts I’ve yet to receive, and I’ve vowed not to forget that.

I hope you’ll join us and reach out to make a difference in your community this Holiday Season.

May your days be merry and bright. Happy Holidays.

Disclosure: Walmart sponsored this post and they provided us with a $100 gift card to purchase these toys. I’ve got to say, this is possibly the most fulfilling post I’ve ever written, so thank you so much Walmart for providing us with the opportunity to give back to our local community!