Light the World 2019

At the beginning of December we jumped on the Light the World bandwagon and amped up our efforts to be kind and do service.  It helped that Eliza's and Luke's teachers were making the same push at school: Ms. P told Luke's class that all month long they would be "Secret Kindness Elves," doing things like letting people get in front of them in line, picking up any trash that they see, etc; Ms. O told Eliza's class that they would be completing "12 Days of Kindness" as a class, with a new challenge revealed each day leading up to Christmas Break.  This was what it looked like when it was all unveiled:

As soon as I heard about this after school, I seized the opportunity to capitalize on Luke's and Eliza's teachers' initiatives and sent them to secretly deliver treats to our neighbor.

We continued to make an extra effort to be kind to each other and to others after that.  And we also talked about making a trip to the Giving Machine closer to Christmas, and helping others by making donations in that way.  I told the kids they could use their personal money, and that I'd also pay them Elf Bucks that they could use at the Giving Machine for any "Santa's Helper" jobs they did leading up to Christmas: wrapping gifts, addressing Christmas cards, decorating cookies, caroling, etc.  They were very helpful, and it made a big difference for me!