Christmas: Tis the Season to "RACK" it up!

I mentioned before that we had started Random Acts of Christmas Kindness with Elijah during December. What an awesome experience it was! The whole family joined in and we partnered up with some friends for a few things so we were really spreading the love.

We picked all things that were: 1) Inexpensive. We don't have much to give in money department but we have lots of goodwill and gratefulness! 2) Understandable for a 3 year old. I searched online and found so many awesome ideas that didn't fit our criteria. Handing out gift cards, buying some one's gas, paying for groceries, etc. Adam and I came up with some ideas and I hit up my facebook friends for some extra. We completed all but one thing on our list, and Elijah was asleep for another but overall a total success!

Here was our RACK list, 2011 style:

Donate items to the animal shelter.

Thanks to a facebook friend for this idea!

Elijah picked out treats and we brought food and soap too.

They let us walk around and look at all the animals.

Both kids fell in love with the cats. Elijah had to go to each cage and talk to them.

Reese pointed at them all and smiled.

Donate items to a military care package.

Huge thanks to a FB friend to happened to post that her and her husband were

collecting items. Extra perk: she lives close by and we have kids the same ages so the kids and I walked over and had a little play time too.

Goodies for the garbage collectors.

This was one of the best. We woke up and went straight outside.

On the coldest day we'd had yet.

Ate breakfast outside and waited. And waited. And waited.

Then we got really excited. They were on our street just on the other side of the cross street a couple house down. And then...

they turned. So we waited some more.

They finally came down our street and E handed them the cupcakes we made. The worker was so sweet, said his thanks, put them in the cab of the truck and they went on. We started putting all the various toys, tricycles, etc back in the garage when what do we see? The garbage truck backing up to our house. The guy came over and said, "I saw you had your camera out. Would you like a picture of him in front of the truck?"

How crazy awesome is that?! Yup. We've got the nicest trash collectors around.

Of course, E was TERRIFIED that they were coming back to take him to the dump

(if you've seen Toy Story 3, you can imagine why he is so scared of the dump. The big mound of trash going into the fire... yeah. He thought that was his future.)

But despite the trauma, really cool morning.

We also brought cupcakes to the library, where the worker was grateful she followed us around thanking us and inviting her coworkers over to thank us.

We left some cupcakes for the mailman, who I should mention is now one of Elijah's best friends. We wait outside for him most days so he can hand deliver the mail to E.

And more cupcakes to the post office

(Big thanks to my father-in-law for the Christmas cupcake molds. They were definitely put to use!)

Adam took Elijah to drop off a toy at a Toys for Tots drop off.

Adam said E was surprisingly really good, didn't hesitate about giving away the toy and didn't ask for any of the others. Probably helped that the employees at the drop off gave him a hand full of Tootsie rolls. :)

We teamed up with our best buddies and delivered some coloring books and crayons to the Children's hospital.

Then next door to drop off cookies and, you guessed it, more cupcakes.

And lastly some handmade Christmas cards to the nursing home.

The boys were so cute together!

We brought cupcakes to the fire house.

This was probably Elijah's favorite.

They let him explore the fire truck and gave him and Reese fire hats

(which E informed me were too small for his head, and maybe Santa would bring him a bigger one. Santa did.)

We also brought cupcakes to the police station.

Here E got to explore a police car, turn on the lights and use the air horn.

He also learned about who to go to if you get lost and impressed the officer with his skills at buckling himself into his car seat.

We went to Target and Elijah chased people down and handed out candy canes with a Christmas message.

This one was really sweet to see my kid surprise shoppers with some cheer.

We also walked around the neighborhood and Elijah sang Christmas carols (Rudolph and Santa Claus is coming to town) and handed out candy canes. We only stopped at a couple houses but he sure did brighten some homes. And Adam took him to donate some jackets and blankets to the homeless shelter but Elijah fell asleep on the way.

This really was the best part of the Christmas season. I'm hoping in this new year we will accomplish doing a RAK each month and next December do this as more an advent, one thing each day.