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 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??

December 1

Tomorrow is December first, day 1 ofthe 25 days of giving. I have been thinking about what we are going to do. This week is range week for my husband so unless I really need the car it isn't going to happen, and there is nothing I need the car for. So that limits me to what I can do in my neighborhood. I think we are going to bake some pumpkin cookies and Ayden can make some cards and we will deliver cookies on the door steps of neighbors with note to pay it forward this holiday season.

What are you planning on doing?

Acts of kindness ideas

Thursday marks Day one of twenty-five days of giving! I have talked with some friends and a lot are excited about this adventure for the holidays. There were some concern about coming up with ideas and low cost ways to do this. So here are some low cost/ no cost ideas for this up coming Challenge.

• At the store gather up all the loose carts 
• take a plate of cookies to firehouse or police station
• go through your kids toys with them and have them pick some to donate to a shelter
• Pick up trash in your neighborhood, park or beach
• Have kids make cards to take to residents in local nursing home or children at the local hospital
• Make ornaments and leave them on neighbors front porches
• Let someone get in front of you in line

• Leave an extra few dollars on the tip when you go out to eat

I hope this list gives you some ideas to make this work for your family this holiday season, please add your ideas in the comments to help other think about how they can give and show love to others this holiday season.