Has this month been a beast or what? I was so excited to run into the holidays only to get knocked down and back with the flu! We finally recovered from that but we’ve been up and down with coughs and runny noses and ear infections. Needless to say it hasn’t been the holly jolly season I was looking forward to.

Last year I had a whole plan mapped out of different activities we could do each day for 25 days of giving. We sorta just went for it each day based on how we were feeling and what we had on hand. One night we made Christmas cookies and surprised our neighbors with them. Another day we wrote letters to missionaries. We also volunteered at a nursing home, and bought toys for kids in foster care. One night we doorbell ditched and delivered homemade ornaments to people in my mom’s neighborhood. And one super simple thing we did was pick up trash around our park.

I wanted to do the same thing this year but a week and a half into the month and we are so far behind. The nice thing is giving doesn’t have to be an all or nothing thing. I may not have a perfectly planned advent set up arranging what we’re doing each day but I think it’s important that my kids know Christmas isn’t all about presents and what Santa is bringing them, but about love, charity, and kindness.

I’ve mentioned more than a few times that I’m not much of a cook. You may also remember that my daughter LOVES creating anything in the kitchen. We recently got a recipe to make some holiday snacks and the second we opened the package my daughter was all “Can we PLEASE make this?!”

It took me awhile to actually getting around to making them with her but she was thrilled for the activity. When we finished we boxed up the goodies and she put on her sneakers cause she was ready to doorbell ditch them to a half a dozen of our neighbors (her favorite part).

Later over the weekend we had a trip planned to head downtown for a Dinosaur Expo coming to town. There’s a large homeless population in Austin and when I worked in news I learned that one of the most needed and helpful items was socks. So we made some care packages for them to hand out including socks, some CLIF Kid Zbar Filled  and water bottles we decorated to be festive.

There’s something really cool about doing things for others. No matter how bad you’ve been feeling, doing something nice for others is a great pick-me-up. My kids get really excited for Christmas. But it’s awesome to see them get just as excited about surprising others and realize giving to others can feel even better than getting something for yourself.

We’re working on our other days of giving ideas. We’re going to do a lot of the things we did last year and hopefully add in some new activities.

What giving traditions do you have during the holiday season or through the year? We’d love to hear your ideas and maybe borrow some of them for ourselves!

I’m passionate about getting my kids outdoors to play, and making meaningful memories together. That’s why I’ve partnered with CLIF Kid for 2017, to share our adventures of being active as a family. CLIF Kid Zbar® Filled is crafted with creamy, delicious nut butter filling and a blend of nutrients for energy to help keep your kids zipping and zooming along. Their products are free of high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors.  You can learn more about this product here. 

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