I got the idea from TSJ Photography and thought it was a fabulous idea and one that would help my kids to understand that it is always better to give than to receive. This is something that I have always told my kids but I don't think they ever got it until we did this.
I absolutely loved that they got excited about doing something for others and that they looked forward to what we would be doing. Even Ellee loved giving a gift to someone and saying Merry Christmas and got upset when it wasn't her turn to do it. While she may not understand completely just yet, it is a good foundation for her to figure out what the boys figured out this Christmas.
We didn't make 25 days but we did make a lot of them and this next Christmas we will make 25 days since I will have a whole year to prepare for it!
Things we did:
We delivered 100 candy canes to car windows all over Paola.
We left money in Zip Lock bags and put them on Red Box locations with a note to buy themselves a treat to go with their movie or game.
We passed out grocery gift cards randomly to people we would come across that we thought needed a smile that day.
We left Money in Zip Lock bags on newspaper stands for people to pay for their paper with.
We put quarters in bags and gave them to little kids in the parking lots that we would come across so they could buy something out of the vending machines inside the door.
If we went out to eat we bought gift cards at that location and passed them out while we were there. For example, there was a young man eating one night by himself and the kids took one to him because he reminded me so much of my brother. They also gave one to people standing in line at Culvers waiting to order as we were walking out the door. You get the idea!
We delivered a gift to a student that just wanted a book for Christmas and times are tough for his family.
We delivered gift cards at Sonic to someone who was having car trouble hoping to brighten their day.
We picked people at Random in the McDonalds drive-thru to bless that day.
Each one of the kids took in money to the Library and paid off late book fees for 3 families.
Some of the things we did we attached a note that we downloaded from that wonderful blog and other random acts we did, we did because I also wanted my kids to learn that it is always nice just to take notice and to lend a smile as you do something nice for someone.
We would let people go in front of us that were standing behind us in line at the grocery store.
We helped an elderly lady put groceries in her car.
We left bigger tips if we went out to eat.
We joined with several other people and gave to families in need this Christmas.
I think as a family, we were more blessed by this advent than anyone that might have received something from us and more importantly my kids understand that it is always better to give than it is to receive. We have been given so many blessings in this life and my prayer for my kids, has always been that they will grow to have a heart for others.
If you are reading this and you do not do an advent or are looking for a different way to do one I would encourage you to do this. I promise you, the blessings you receive from this are far greater than you could ever imagine. Wouldn't it be cool if everyone just decided to Pay It Forward next Christmas or just did something nice for someone every day of the year??
No comments:
Post a Comment