Ok...so to start...let it be known that this awesome idea was not mine! It stemmed from one of my favorite bloggers, Cara Carrol who writes for The First Grade Parade (the link to her blog is below...definitely should be checked out) This lady is beyond creative!
Random Acts of Christmas Kindness (RACK'ed) is a way for your family to brighten the spirit of those people that are a part of your every day life. Some people you may know and some you may not. I must admit that I found this idea to late into the holiday season and did not have enough time to get as organized as I would have liked. The original RACK counts down the days until Christmas...so technically you'd be doing something everyday. Our family has done a few things so far and the kids have loved it.
Some of the things they suggest are putting candy canes on cars when you're shopping, bringing hot chocolate to the Salvation Army bell ringers, bringing holiday goodies to your neighbors, going through a drive through and paying for the car behind you, taping dollar bills/coins to vending machines, going to your local library and paying off someone's overdue fine...the list is endless and the best part is that you can do whatever your family wants! We've done some things off of this list and have added a few additional things.
This cute card is one example of something you can use. (You can download this from The First Grade Parade link that I have at the end of this post.)
This red striped card is my favorite. That's what we printed off.
We bought tons of candy canes and taped the red note to each candy cane. Ava and Isaiah were very excited to do this for other people.
When we were finished we put the candy canes/notes into a basket to keep in the car.
Someone needed a candy cane of her own! Ava had a doctor's appointment the other day so we put lots of them on the cars that were in the McFarland Clinic parking lot. We've also been to Target and put some on cars in the parking lot there too.
We've been talking about how even though we don't know these people, it will still brighten their holiday season when they see that someone has shown kindness.
Other things we've done:
**The first graders at our school did a service learning project to collect donations for the Story County Animal Shelter. Our family gave them a check to use for whatever they might need.
**We made a donation to the Ronald McDonald House and decorated a virtual gingerbread house to share with a child.
**This weekend I plan to finish our holiday baking and we will be delivering Christmas plates to our neighbors and on every Wednesday before Christmas, we leave a goodie bag out for our garbage man.
Next year I really want to be more organized and make a list of what I want our family to do...but this is a start. I love this idea and want it to be a tradition that starts in our family each holiday season. What a great way to show your children that Christmas is not about the presents or decorations...it's about helping others.
Ronald McDonald House...Design a Gingerbread House (Hopefully this link takes you to the gingerbread house we designed...well after trying this link it doesn't...but it let's you particpate and create a house of your choice.)
8 days until Christmas! Fa la la la la la la la la!
My Three Happy's:
1) Eating dinner out at the Mongolian buffet...the kids love this place! Isaiah was the brave one who tried lots of new things. He loved the breaded shrimp!
2) Visiting our neighbors Leo and Esther Richardson. They used to live behind us but have moved down the street into a duplex. Their grandchildren are all grown so they spoil ours! The invited us over at 4:00 today and had gift bags ready for the kids. We visited with them for about an hour. They are the nicest people and spoil the kids silly!
3) I have been falling asleep at 8:00 every night along with one of the kids. Tonight I broke down and drank a pop at dinner (haven't had one in 3 weeks). I wanted the caffeine to keep me up so I could actually enjoy a movie with Andy instead of falling asleep like I did last night during Burn Notice. Andy has the coffee pot brewing now (it's 8:30)...so it may be a late night of movie watching and catching up on our favorite shows.
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