Day 12

So i forgot to post yesterday but we are almost half way through our giving challenge and it has been wonderful. Today we made some cards to send off to the wounded warriors for Christmas. Being a military family this is something that is close to my heart. Ayden came up with  something thoughtful for each card and last night before bed prayed for all the wounded warriors. It is an honor to see him growing like this!

The addresses are below for anyone else who would like to send cards to these hero;s this holiday season!

Audie Murphy VA Hospital
Spinal Cord Injury Unit GLD
San Antonio, Texas. 78229

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center
Wounded Warrior Ministry Center
CMR 402
APO AE 09180

Walter Reed Medical Center
Medical Family Assistance Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

Michael De Bakey Veterans Hospital
Spinal Cord Unit
2002 Holcombe Blvd.
Houston, TX 77030

Brooke Army Medical Center
3851 Roger Brooke Drive
Fort Sam Houston, Tx 78234

Day 11

Today  I had Ayden go through his toys and pick some to donate to the local womens and childrens shelter. It was fun going through his tows and him thinking about what ones he thought other children would like to play with.

We had a box full of toys to donate when we were done. It was a great project for Ayden :)

Day 10

We have been talking about how not everyone is as lucky to have what we have. During that conversation we talked about how some families we know won't have their mommies or Daddies home, due to deployments and assignments overseas. He remembered one of the neighbor kids talking about her daddy leaving and he thought her mommy would be really sad right now and that lead us to our RACK for today ( thank you to a reader who suggested the acronym)

So today we put some candy and a small trinket from our present closet in a box and left it on the front porch of a neighbor whose husband just deployed at the beginning of the month.

Day 9

Yesterday I mentioned our pumpkin cookies and the recipe was asked for so for anyone who is interested in trying these wonderful cookies here it is :

• 4 cups all-purpose flour ( do 2 whole wheat and 2 all purpose)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 (16 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Add pumpkin, oil, eggs, milk and vanilla; beat on medium speed until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees F for 13-14 minutes or until edges just begin to brown. Cool for 2 minutes; remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

I hope your family enjoys them as much as we do!

 

For our kindness today I am making some cookies and attaching the recipe for my FRG leader who I have hooked on these delicious cookies. Ayden thinks it is perfect since they are the best cookies in the whole wide world and she can know make them when ever she wants. 

 

Hope you all are able to spread some Holiday cheer this weekend! 

Day 8

First off I want to do a shout out to Money Saving mom, she featured me on her blog and I am so thankful for that. I am also thankful for all the wonderful ladies that have been checking out my blog from that post. It is great to hear about you who are challenging to reach out to others this holiday season.

Second, I want to share what has been happening in our house since we have started this challenge. My five year old has been changing. Kindness is spilling over in to all parts of his life, yesterday he let a child get in front of him to use the slide. Also when we went to see Santa instead of asking for a bunch of things for him, he asked that all the boys and girls whose parents can't get them much would get extra presents from him this year. The talk of presents has pretty much stopped here all together. Which was my goal. Presents at Christmas are great and wonderful, but I really don't want that to be the focus in our house. I want him to think of others and it is happening. It is so great to see this wonderful character trait growing in my little boy.

Now on to our act for the day, I have been baking pumpkin cookies for a few get togethers we have coming up. Pumpkin cookies are a staple in this house at the holidays, we call them Christmas Crack because they are so good and equally addicting. So we wrapped up some cookies with a note and left them for our neighbors! Ayden had fun sneaking up to their front porch and leaving them there. Maybe I need to invest in some Santa hats for us to wear while we are blessing others.... defiantly something to think about!!!

Day 7

Today was shopping day. Ayden had a great idea to gather up all the carts that were not put away so they didn't bump into anyones cars and scratch them. I thought this was a great idea for the day.
We gathered up the carts there and then later at the px where we saw santa. It has been great to see Ayden thinking about others this week. I have seen it spill over in to all parts of our life, I think this lesson is working :)

Day 6

We have almost made it through a full week of doing acts of kindness :) it has been fun and a great way to spread joy this holiday season.

We were running late this morning, so on our way to co-op we had to pick up breakfast. I gave the lady at the window more than I needed for my meal and told her to use it for the next persons meal and so on until the money was gone. She smiled and said " Not enough people do nice things just becuase, that is great!" I said "thank you" she replied with " I think I am going to take a page out of your book and pay it forward this holiday season!"

I love inspiring people to do nice things for others, there is some much bad in this world we could all use a little kindness. It was a great start to my morning.

Day 5

Today was an easy one, my FRG was wrapping presents at the PX so I went in for a few hours and helped wrap presents.

Ayden is getting really into to the whole thing and hasbeen coming up with some great ideas. looking forward to seeing what else he comes up with!

Day 4

Last night a Friend of mine posted about her daughter breaking her hand while goofing off with her Dad. I thought this was a great opportunity to do an act of kindness. Ayden made her a card and we walked to her house to drop it off with a box of chocolates. It was a nice surprise for her it was great to make her day a little better!

Day 3

Today we took a trip to the park with some friends my son had over for a sleep over. While we were there we noticed there was pieces of trash all over the place. So before we came home we picked up all the trash even the freinds we had with us helped :)

how is your challenge going??

Day 2

Last night we made some Cinnamon ornaments, well tried to and they all got stuck to my cookie sheet :(. So I took out my crafting supplies and made some stocking ornaments out of felt instead, crisis averted and this morning my son wasn't as upset since we still had ornaments to leave on peoples doors.

Armed with our ornaments taped to cards we VERY quietly stuck them on people's doors Ayden had a lot of fun with this he even made up a secret sign to show me the card was secure.

On the way home we counted the cards and he was excited that there were already three people had picked up off their doors!

Can't wait to hear of others ideas today!

Day 1

Today was the first day of the 25 days of giving! To start off our giving this holiday season while we were at Walmart we picked up 2 gift cards before we started shopping and I handed them to Ayden and he was able to pick out 2 families while we shopped to gift them to.

The first family was so surprised she thought we  were joking.  When we were leaving she found me in the parking lot and thanked me again. She was doubtful there was money on the card but tried it when she checked out and much to her surprise we were telling the truth.

The second family was also caught off guard, we talked to her for a few moments she wanted to know why we were doing it and if if was affiliated with anything. So I shared why we were, turns out they are also a homeschooling family and she liked the idea so much they are going to pay it forward this holiday season too.

When we were done Ayden wanted to hand out more I told him maybe next time, I do like his giving spirit. It was a great way to kick off our season of giving.

What did your family do today??