25 Days of Kindness

Our very own Elf on the Shelf – Evelyn Sarah

Why?
I have been struggling with Christmas this year. Not just because of our grief journey or our re-energized faith, but because this is the first Christmas Ava will really remember. I want to start her out right. I do not just want it to be about toys and getting gifts. We bought her an Elf on the shelf last year for Christmas so that she would have it for this Christmas season. I struggled with getting it out. I hated the idea of bribing her to be good just for the chance of getting more gifts from Santa. I really want her to understand the meaning of Christmas. I have been teaching her the last couple of weeks about advent and Jesus’s birthday. But I really wanted more. Enter Facebook. Last night, just hours before Day 1 of the 25 days of Christmas, a post showed up on my feed. The Kindness Elves.

What?
The Kindness Elves are an alternative to the traditional elf on the shelf. Here is the link to where I found the idea. These elves love to help and notice kindness in others. So instead of getting gifts, we are rewarding people who have been generous and kind. I loved the idea that we would be doing a lot of giving without getting anything in return. A great lesson for Ava. The Kindness Elves help us come up with ideas. At the end the Kindness Elves will reward her with gifts (but she doesn’t know that yet!)

Who?
We thought we would name our elf Kindness. It seemed appropriate. This year we thought we would pick 25 people who have been so kind to us during these last 6 months that we would return the kindness. It has been a tough 6 months, but there are so many people who deserve a great thanks for all that they do for us or for some who work at keeping Evy’s memory alive. So I started a list and in about 5 seconds I was over 25 people. How lucky are we that we have so many people who love and care for us? To go over our 25 people (one per day) might not be so simple and would go against my new life motto. So other acts of kindness might be given throughout the year so that we can thank everyone or we’ll just keep an ongoing list for every Christmas to follow!

Follow!
To follow our 25 Days of Kindness, you can click on this link here. Day 1 was wonderful. It was great spending quality time with Ava and talking about our chosen person and what makes her so great. Can’t wait for Day 2!