26 Acts of Kindness {2013}

A few weeks ago, I posted {here} that like last year, I was going to do 26 Acts of Random Kindness in honor of the 26 victims in the Sandy Hook shootings. My goal was to have them done by 12.14 (the 1 year anniversary of the shootings). I did my last 2 acts of kindness today, so I was about a week late getting them all done....But, hey! I got them all done, so that's what matters, right?

Here is a list of the 26 Acts of Kindness I did for 2013:

1.  Gave the girls money to donate to the Salvation Army:

2. Donated to my older sister's half marthon. She was running to raise $ for World Vision, they are building a well in Africa. 

3. At the grocery store, donated money to St. Jude....every dollar counts, right?  

 

4. Taped a dollar on the Red Box machine so that someone could get their rental paid for.

5.  Brought in Toys for the Toy drive at my school

6. Adopted a Family with our Small Group at church.

7. I was at Target with the girls getting them slushies (as a bribe) and there was a man sitting in the in the eating area. He asked if I had any spare money so he could get a meal. I told him I would buy him his meal, so I bought him a pizza & some bread sticks at the Pizza Hut inside our Target.

 8.  Donated items for the school auction at the girl's school.

9. A teacher at my school was having a really rough week, so one day I got her a Starbucks gift card to cheer her up.

10. My friend Becky was collecting items for her church's Auction, so I donated a Target gift card to the Auction.

11. Donated clothes & shoes to Goodwill.

12. My friend Tara was collecting presents for a single mom & her 2 kids because the mom couldn't afford presents for her kids, so I bought a couple of toys for each of the kids.

13. I got 10 free Baskin Robbins coupons from our school PTA, so I gave 3 of them my friend's husband so he could take his kids to ice cream when his wife was out of town for the weekend.

14. I gave 4 of Baskin Robbins coupons to the cashier at Baskin Robbins and told him to give the coupons to the next 4 people to come into the store so they could have a free ice cream cones.

15. When we were in the city last week, there was a musician playing Christmas music with his guitar in the BART station, so I put some money in his guitar case. 

16. When we went to the city, the woman who worked at BART was so very helpful to me & the kids, so the next day I called BART customer service and let them know that she was really helpful to me & my 3 kids.

17. Went through the McDonald's drive through for a Diet Coke and then paid for car behind me.

 18. I was on my way to pick up Kate from school and I noticed our neighbor's dog roaming the court, so I brought the dog back to it's backyard.

19. Gave a homeless man a $5 McDonald's gift card so he could get a warm meal.

20.  Kevin and I organized Christmas Caroling....we wanted to go caroling around our neighborhood and at each house collect canned food items so we could donate them to our local Food Bank. We finally organized it and last Monday had over 50 adults/kids at our house for pizza, cookies, hot coco and Christmas Caroling.

 We called the event "Caroling for Cans"

It was crazy with all those kids, but so fun.

21.  Had my students make Christmas cards for teachers on Friday, it was so neat to read such heartfelt cards & then I delivered them to the teachers at my school.

22. Adopted a "kid" at my school whose family is struggling & I donated a Target gift card so that he could have a Christmas present.

23. Added money to a vending machine so that someone would get an unexpected free soda.

24.  Returned some shopping carts in the grocery store parking lot that were blocking parking spaces.

25. Luke got his 2nd haircut today (tear!) and we had to wait 45 minutes. The haircut place was SWAMPED. We had to wait 45 mintues. The girl who cut his hair said they had been going non-stop since they opened this morning since everyone wanted to get their kids haircuts in time for Christmas. So, I gave her an extra big tip :)

26. Bought 4 lotto tickets & taped them to the gas pump when I filled up with gas today.

So, there you have it...my 2013 Acts of Kindness in honor of the 26 Sandy Hook victims.

Even though this time of year is crazy busy, I am so glad I was able to do little things this Christmas season to honor them. 

This is a tradition I will continue to do each December...I will never ever forgot those 26 people or the community of Newtown.

 I encourage you to join in next December...or even now. 

It's never too late to start doing random Acts of Kindness & spreading Christmas cheer.

Little things can be big things.

Merry Christmas Eve, Eve!