I used to do daily posts on our Kindness Advent for memories and reference for others, but, well, time is lacking these days. We’ve been carrying on with our kindness advent as best we can. We did have one rainy day that botched our surprise chalk art…you win some, you lose some and you carry on.
One of my favorite things about our kindness advent is watching and encouraging our kids to use their words to be kind. Obviously our whole family doesn’t always use our words to build each other up, but instead we get pissed and use our words to bring each other down. I like watching their little minds think and work and act to bring some kindness into the world.
One of our favorite soups Bacon Cheeseburger Soup…we adore this with tortilla chips…and it’s perfect to give to a friend. Simply enough and definitely delicious enough.
We scored these ornaments 50% off at Michaels.
Heart explosion!!!!!
Donut Delivery Tip: If you order 10 or more boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts a few days ahead of time they give you a 25% discount on your order. Props.
People had a hard time believing me Kroger had peonies for our flower delivery. Hahahaha. But alas, Kroger does sometimes carry peonies and I scored some just in time. I also had a coupon for flowers…they come in the mail sometimes along with other personalized coupons for things I buy often from Kroger.
I always keep pickle and salsa jars just for flowers. I spent about $20 on flowers and then divided them up into 5 jars so $4 a jar!
Our big kids wrote encouraging words on sticky notes and then put them on their classmates lockers at school. In the past we have put them on public bathroom mirrors, so this was a new twist and they really enjoyed it. It was funny hearing them talk about how their friends reacted.
Cookies have been our choice of baked good this holiday season. We’ve been handing out chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and chocolate sea salt cookies like it’s our job. Leo has been very happy about this. Ha.
And for our Redbox rental bag we bought Redbox codes online, printed them out and the kids picked out their favorite popcorn and treats to go with it. We’ve left this at the Redbox before for the next customer, we’ve given it to friends and stuffed them in mailboxes. Any delivery method goes.
This tradition takes some planning and I always get tons of questions about it, but it’s so worth the extra planning for us. A friend text me recently and said she was enjoying watching us do our advent to which I replied this is basically how we keep from drowning in this season. Holidays can be really hard in the grief department so our family needs that extra push. I also know it can seem a bit overwhelming and not for everyone. Different strokes, for different folks-4-eva!!!! I feel like we’re all just doing our best and hanging on tight, so carry on friends. Do this season the best you can. Solidarity.
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Heart explosion for sure on the photo of Winter hugging the little boy with the ornament! Too much!
I love all these wonderful ideas! We’ve have a different struggle the past couple if years. My gowing children who no longer relate to our old Advent traditions but still want to “celebrate Advent”. These service oriented ideas are perfect and even though we were only able to do a few this year, I think next year it will be almost totally this type of thing. Thank you so much for sharing! Praying that your joy in generosity will help you battle against the grief!