Inspired by my brilliant Mom, this year we are going to try and do small and simple things every day that bring the true spirit of Christmas into our home. Hopefully the little acts of service and kindness will be fun, contagious and ultimately keep our thoughts centered on Christ this Christmas season. Here are a few examples of what we’ve experienced so far…
Sharing the “Service Star”: One day Madelyn gathered all the laundry from the bedrooms and took it to the laundry room. Then she left the star there for me to see it was now my turn to share the service star. Another day, Madelyn made Mason’s bed, leaving the star on his pillow. Mason then made Jalen’s bed and left the star. Then together all three of them made Alan and my bed and left the star for us. They were so happy and excited to do something nice for each other. It’s amazing how such a small act of kindness brings so much happiness. It really is contagious!
Madelyn chose to share the special “I Love You” candy bar with her teacher, Mrs. Needham because she truly adores and loves her first grade teacher. We appreciate all the hard work and fabulous job Mrs. Needham does.
While driving around admiring the many beautiful Christmas Lights, we decided to take a special treat to a house in our neighborhood whose lights we thought were the best. After all finally agreeing on one, we all got out of the car to deliver the surprise and tell our neighbors how much we appreciate their hard work and enjoy the lights on their home. We did have a funny experience with this one. After knocking, a man came, opened the door and then left the door half open but went back upstairs. We thought maybe he was just going up to put on a shirt so we waited. But no one came back down. We waited a little longer and of course the kids were talking and asking what is he doing and what should we do with the popcorn. I knew that whoever had opened the door could hear us. Finally I decided we should just close the door and leave because obviously he wasn’t coming back down. Just as we were loading up in the car, the man opened the door. He apologized and was quite embarrassed because he had thought that we were his wife and kids coming home and that his wife had forgotten her keys so she was knocking on the door for him to let them in! So he simply opened the door for them, not realizing we weren’t his family! We explained to him what we were doing and he was so appreciative. More importantly, the kids were thrilled and thought this was so much fun.