It's the Holiday Season---

Growing up, my family always put our tree up the first full weekend in December.  My brother was born on the 3rd, and it seemed to fall around his birthday every year so it worked out great when we were all kids.  But, when my hubby and I got married, we decided that it would go up after Thanksgiving, usually on that Saturday.  We've maintained this tradition for years and it works great for us.  It's good quality family bonding...and it puts us in that holiday mood. 

This year, our big debate was real tree vs. artificial tree.

Me?  I wanted a real tree.  

I remember having one at home, at my grandparent's, but never since we've been married-

-I felt I was due.

Then, I thought---ick-what a mess.  

With my artificial tree I can bend my branches if things won't stay the way I want them.

But I was missing the smell---ahh the smell.

SOOO--lo and behold lookie!

These are FABULOUS.  I'm only on day 2, but I can smell the fresh evergreen as soon as I walk in the house.  Well worth it if you like the smell, but not the mess.

 And---you can't always tell if it's a real or artificial tree at first look
(sometimes even 2nd look) :)

The holiday season is also about creating memories.
We get so wrapped up in other things that we forget to breathe.
We forget what the season is about.

See that little sign:
Here's a closer look.

He's the Reason for the Season.

I wanted to keep the season alive--
I'm all about the acts of Kindness.

We came up with some ideas we wanted to do.
We asked for more ideas at Thanksgiving with my dad/siblings.
But I was surprised at what I was hearing.
What my husband and I do just because it feels right--
people don't always do????
Holding a door?  Taking someone's cart? Helping someone with something heavy?
Picking up trash because we see it?  Really??? I didn't know.

I guess I just assumed others were doing it out of habit.
So, we continued with our list that we had started.

Our list is nothing huge, some things we're doing do cost money, but it's nothing extravagant.
Just little things here and there as we count down to Christmas.

I truly feel I'm blessed in so many ways.
If I can bring a smile to one person's face--or even a shock of confusion followed by a smile-
-then I'm happying up my own day too!

So for our first countdown to Christmas activity, we passed out lottery tickets.

When I first bought them, I turned right around and gave one to the cashier.
She looked confused as I wished her good luck--and I went on my way.

We ended up going into a few stores with the kids and I had them pass them out as well.
The kids were getting into it, and the receivers were all shocked at first--but my kids said "Good luck" and Merry Christmas.  I had fun with this activity with the kids tonight.
We may have to do this one again.

Monday I am calling our local hospital to see if there are any restrictions for our children's ward and chemo ward.  I want to donate a few things, but feel I need to double check before I do.
We would like to do board games/coloring books/crayons etc for the children
and chapsticks, gum, socks, mints, etc for the chemo patients.
This idea hits home----as my mom had breast cancer.
When she was sick, she remarked about the taste she would have in her mouth.
Hopefully this helps other patients and the hospital accepts our chemo bags.

So, I hope to post and share more of our RAKS, but I'd love to hear from you.
Do you have any ideas?