The Toy Box Years: Acts of Christmas Kindness

The Creators of the Toy Box Years

The creators of the Toy Box Years are my two beautiful daughters and wonderful, handsome soldier husband.

"Nani" (our oldest) is a 11 year old 6th grader who loves Taylor Swift, ballet, books, fashion designing and sewing. Ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and it changes daily to anything from "an artist" to "a teacher" to "a singer/dancer". Nani is also currently fighting a battle against brain cancer -- recently diagnosed in June 2016.

"Nudgie" (our youngest) is a very smiley, very happy, very giggly, very spirited 8 year old 3rd Grader who's favorite toys are anything that gives mommy an anxiety attack - ladders, stepstools, the climbing wall at the playground. Like her sister, she has a love of reading and coloring, loves gymnastics and still provides mommy lots of snuggle time!

"My Marine" is my high school sweetheart. We've been married over 20 years and met when we were 17. (You do the math....) His favorite toys are Blackhawk helicopters, the lawnmower, our steam cleaner, and microbrew beer bottles. My husband is also my hero in that he proudly serves his country as a Blackhawk crew chief (hence his favorite toy!). And need I say that there is nothing hotter than my man in uniform!

All About Me......

Once upon a time I had a career and worked in the corporate world. Once upon a time, I dreamed about leaving that all behind to follow my true calling -- being a wife and mommy.

The first part of my calling was fulfilled in 1995 when I married my Marine (now soldier) and my love. Little did I know that being a military wife would change me in so many ways and that because of that, I would have an extended family all over the world from Japan, to California, to North Carolina.

The second part of my calling took a little doing, but I finally achieved that dream in 2004 with the birth of our first child, followed 4 years later by her baby sister.

So now, when someone asks me what I do for a living - I simply smile and say proudly that I'm following my calling - I'm a mommy and a wife -- and I couldn't be HAPPIER -- I'm living in the Toy Box Years!!

On December 1st, we started our Acts of Christmas Kindness calendar. I was so excited to get started, and once we got going, the girls would race downstairs to read that day's Bible verse and act for the day. (You can see the original post and the calendar here.)

Overall, the first week went very well. Here's a brief summary of our first week!

December 1 - Take bag to Denver Mission:
We've been saving bags for a few weeks now. We took three bags and one box full of clothes, blankets, toys & stuffed animals.

December 2 - Pay it forward with girls' clothes:
I've been holding on to clothes the girls have outgrown. I thought I'd get my act together to either sell them myself or take them to a consignment store. Never happened. So instead, I put them all into one big bag (along with some games, books & toys) and gave them to a dear friend of ours who has the most adorable little 2 year old girl!

December 3 - Take Toys for Tots:
Over the past 6 months, we started a place in our garage where we'd keep a box for items we would donate to Toys for Tots. The girls each picked an item to purchase themselves (Nani purchased an "Ever After" book and Nudgie chose an Anna doll). We put those in our collection along with everything else and dropped them off at a local garage who served as a drop-off.

December 4 - Donate coffee to soldiers overseas:
For awhile, I've been donating coffee to soldiers deployed overseas using Green Beans Coffee's Cup of Joe for a Joe program. (Click here to go and check out the site!) It just takes a minute and as little as $2 to donate a hot cup of coffee to a soldier serving overseas. I've already gotten two "thank you" messages!

December 5 - Pay it forward with girls' books:
Originally, today we were going to tape popcorn to the Redbox kiosks, but I shuffled some things around since, today, I was seeing the person who would benefit from today's act. Anyway, Nudgie is doing very well with her reading and I had a box of books, again, just sitting around waiting for me to either sell or consign. My friend's little girl is in Kindergarten and is learning to read, so a lot of these books would be very helpful to her....as well as her little boy who is in preschool. We just love sharing books, so this was a very easy act for us today!

December 6 - Distribute candy canes with St. Nicholas prayer:
Today was the Feast Day of St. Nicholas. I really wanted us to do something connected to this very special Saint. So, after some google searching and Pinterest-ing, I found this amazing St. Nicholas Day Blessing of the Candy Canes (which you can download here). I bought a box of candy canes, taped the blessing to them. The girls and I said a little prayer over them and then went off to the base. We distributed half to people we'd see and the other half we placed on random windshields.

Day 7 - Tape popcorn to Redbox kiosks: Today we were able to get out and tape our popcorn to Redbox kiosks. Again, thanks to Pinterest and Google, I found this cute little RAK printable on Simply Living For Him. We printed them out and taped them to microwave popcorn, which we taped to the Redbox kiosk in our local Safeway.

So, there it is! Our first week of Christmas Kindness! I will say, that in the first week, I have noticed some small blessings coming back our way as well! Our whole intention in doing this is not to see what we can get in return. One friend asked me, "aren't you worried about what someone might say or just throw it away?".....and my answer is "No". I cannot control how people respond to our kindness.....but we can still put our kindness out there.....regardless of anyone's reaction. Our hope is to spread light & love.