This post is so huge I'm not even gonna show you Christmas coffee mug of the day. I know, right!? But I gathered all your holiday good deeds and listed them here, which might even be better than looking at my mug. I hope I didn't leave anyone out. You guys rock. I have the best readers in the world. Keep those good deeds coming!!
I spent a bit of time over the last day and a half organizing people to buy gifts for children in the care of the Department of Child and Family Services here in MA. A friend of ours works for the post office and he asks us each year to help find people to buy gifts for this program. Overall the post office finds gifts for almost 1,000 kids.
We are getting gifts for 5 children ourselves.
Just bought two midwife kits at International Medical Corps for us after watching Oprah today. Seriously, I don't know about you, but I'm terrified of childbirth -- these chicks deserve all the help they can get!
There was a homeless guy with his homeless dog outside of Petsmart. When we finished shopping I took a rawhide bone out of the sack and a fiver out of my wallet and drove over to the homeless man I asked the man if his dog could have a raw hide and he told me yes, that would be nice. Then I gave the man the $5 and told him to go get him some coffee and a burger. He told me he was okay and didn't need anything but I could tell he wanted to take it. I told him to go get him a cup of coffee and buy his dog a burger. He laughed and took the money.
Today when I went to the gas station to purchase gas I noticed that there was a very stressed young mom out with three little ones in an older minivan pumping gas. When I went in to pay for my gas I asked the attendant if she had paid at the pump and he said no, so I gave him $15 to go towards her gas and asked him to tell her Merry Christmas.
I saw what appeared to be a granddad, pushing a stroller, with a kid asleep in it, with a jug of milk strategically balanced on the top. He was walking by, looking at all the full lanes, shaking his head, & moving on. I had to yell "sir" a couple of times, but got his attention & told him to please go ahead of me. He was quite appreciative. As I was smiling smugly to myself (because, you know, pride comes before a fall), I saw the bottom of his stroller. CRAMMED FULL OF AS MUCH STUFF AS I HAD IN MY WHOLE CART. Sigh. It still counts, though, right?!
I held the door open for 5 random people today. All of whom were older than me/strangers.
Old lady at the store, she wanted something off the top shelf, I'm 6'5", so easy, asked if she needed any light bulbs changed, she declined.
I let a girl sing when my band performed Tuesday night. Because I remember always wishing that I could get up and sing with a band before I was actually in a band, but most bands are not willing to let an audience member mess with their stuff.
I held the door open for some people today, and I tried to be super cheerful for my cashiers and bus drivers, so that's a start.
Does it count as a good deed if, when you're walking the dog just before you leave for work and don't have a dog poop bag because he just pooped ONE HOUR AGO and I...I mean someone... didn't think he would poop again so quickly, and no one else saw the dog poop so you coulda just left the poop there.... If you go back home, come back with a poop bag and pick the poop up 15 minutes later, is that a "good deed"? Because I could do that one. Just sayin'.
1.) I picked up Chinese food for lunch for myself and two co-workers, and when I saw several other carry-out bags there for other customers, I paid for one of them. The Chinese joint employees were very confused.
2.) I took the $10 my boss gave me to cover his Chinese food, gave it to the Salvation Army dude standing in front of the restaurant, and paid for my boss's food myself.
I fed the expired meters when I had to make a trip to another courthouse yesterday. This was fun and I'm going to do this again.
And last but not least, when I was going through the line at McDonald's getting my Filet of MmmmDelish Fish, I paid for the next person in line behind me.
I gave my umbrella to a woman waiting at the bus stop on Wednesday. I think I scared her with my own rain-induced wild woman hairdo.
Mary Vogel and I have decided to donate kids’ clothes and toys--she younger, me tweens--to local groups who need them. We will keep you posted as we get this RAK done.
I tried to buy a scarf and some hand warmers for the Salvation Army lady ringing her bell, but she WOULD NOT take them, so I'm giving them to a single mother I work with.
Went out to our favorite BBQ restaurant. The table next to us had been there for a while and our food came before theirs. Rob made his excuses to them about us being regulars. They were polite, but we could tell they were a little put out. When Rob returned to our table, I asked him to secretly put some money on their tab for waiting.
Gave a street scammer all my cash ($30). "I'm trying to get to Seattle. . . "
Spent 45 minutes helping an old woman carry her groceries home. (Twenty minutes walking to and from; 15 minutes putting them away in her kitchen and chatting.)
Withdrew $200 in 20s; walked around downtown; gave money to whomever asked. I had only 2 hours to spare. Last person to ask five minutes before deadline got $120. SUPER fun!
I gathered up all the grocery carts that people had left scattered around my side of the icy parking lot and took them all to the grocery cart parking station so that the cart-gatherers wouldn't have to risk life and limb ice-skating around in the cold to gather them.
We had such an abundance of [Christmas decorations] that we'll never use again, so after we decorated (using only a fraction of what we had), we packed up the rest of everything and I'm going to drop it by a Children's Center here in town.
I figured the Children's Center can use it to decorate their own classrooms, hallways, and dining area so the kids have something festive to enjoy together.
I delivered a lady's order direct to her door for free and then hugged her when I arrived (crazy random hugger here). She has cancer and can't get out to the stores to Christmas shop and wanted to get her dog something nice.
We also bought a lovely doll for my niece on Saturday and got an extra one the same for the wishing tree (they give the gifts to poor children).
Donated money online for orphans in Uganda and took over nursery duty for lady in my church.
I had an early morning hair appointment Saturday. It was snowing and just plain messy outside, so I stopped and picked up a dozen donuts for the hairdressers and customers who made it in.
I took my ultra-large coffee maker, which brews 2,000 cups or something like that, to school and made coffee for my college English classes.
I volunteered to help a friend's friend move over the weekend. Loaded all the heavy stuff into my truck and took it to storage for her. She wanted to buy me lunch, but because I know money is tight for her right now, I just told her to pay it forward. Help someone else the next time she gets a chance. And buy me a beer sometime.
I took two angels off of the Christmas Child tree at my church and purchased gifts for two brothers. While I was selecting the angels off of the tree, the leader of the Christmas Child program at my church cornered me and asked me to volunteer my Saturday sorting all of the gifts for the program and helping to purchase more gifts. I think I am really going to enjoy helping!
I decided to donate a pint of blood.
Wouldn't you know, I get a R.O.O.K.I.E tech. First she had to prick my finger to check my coagulant number or something like that. Not only did she painfully prick, she squeezed. Then waited. Then squeezed again. Then waited. THEN SQUEEZED AGAIN. It was bloody painful.
So we're not exactly off on the best foot. But I'm keeping my eye on the mission.
It hurt like a *&^% when she put the needle in, and I flinched. She exclaims, "Oh! Don't move!" Hey, don't STAB me and I won't move. Something tells me this is gonna leave a mark.
Then she's having trouble getting the bag to fill, so some guy has to come over and fiddle with it. She had to keep the blood pressure cuff tight, and at one point, my fingers were going numb. Twice she had to release the cuff and refill. I still have no feeling in my right hand.
So I'm trying like mad to concentrate on my magazine article. And it’s not working. Watching the clock, literally 20 minutes later I ask, "So, how are we doing there?" She responds: "The bag is almost half full."
Somehow this finally ends. She asks what color bandage I'd like. I honestly couldn't care less, I just want to get the heck out of there. So she starts wrapping and wrapping and wrapping and wrapping this 2" wide neon pink surgical tape around my arm. FIVE TIMES. Should I be worried about my limb at this point?
It was pouring down rain, when I went out to my car, guess who had a flat tire?! Yeah. And, I had planned to stop for gas on my way home. Did I mention it was pouring rain? Um, yeah. The two stations I went to, BOTH of their systems were down, cash only.
Last night at the dentist's office I held the door for a man who was carrying several boxes and almost dropping them.
I’m participating in the Wish Tree program through my company. Every year we buy Christmas gifts for kids in the Head Start program. It makes me so sad when they ask for things like a winter coat. I remember when I was a young, single mom and times were tough, so I like helping someone who's walking in my shoes. In keeping with that, I always try to find a boy with my son's name.
I took a box of cookies over to the fire station, just because. Next week I'm volunteering at the Operation Christmas Child warehouse in Charlotte, preparing gift boxes for children around the world.
I have a coworker, who will remain nameless, but if you need imagery, imagine Frasier Crane's ex-wife Lilith. She comes into my office each morning, first thing, to try out her sermonette of the day. Today, instead of looking bored, I told her I liked her seasonal sweater. She went into her version of Violet's "Why this old thing? I only wear this when I don't care how I look" line from "It's A Wonderful Life." However, I could tell that she was touched, since she wandered back to her office in record time.
Does taking two little old ladies on a road trip to see their other little old lady sister count? How about the 1287463 times we had to stop so someone could go potty? How about the fact that it's cold/snowy/sleety in Ohio and I'm from Texas?
Today is garbage day in my neighborhood. We have winds gusting up to 45 mph, so you can imagine the havoc it is playing with the plastic-type garbage cans. I have retrieved several of my neighbors cans and placed them into their driveways.
I had to go through the toll booth twice on Monday on my way to the Pioneer Woman book signing and I paid for the driver behind me each time.
Walking the friendly boxers this eve and Cosmo goes off to sniff a nativity scene, happily comes back and drops something at my feet, Lucy grabs it, runs off, I chase, grab her and retrieve the item, and place The Baby Jesus back in his cradle thingy. I hope none of the neighbors were watching, I know Santa is.
My aunt, who was brain-damaged in an auto accident over 30 years ago, lives alone in a small apartment. The complex has many other disabled people living there and they all look out for one another. My aunt has just finished chemo and radiation for lung cancer.
Occasionally, people from the state come by to do an inspection. They're just checking to make sure people are eating, that their heat is on, things are clean and everyone is safe.
Yesterday, my aunt's neighbor had an inspection. She was quite proud of the fact that she has been living there for 13 years and has never had a violation. But today she got a violation for having a smoke detector with a weak battery. She had two days to fix it.
She was so upset over getting a violation that she cried. I told her I would install new batteries for her. But that wasn't the problem. She didn't have the money for batteries.
I ran out to the General Dollar, bought her two batteries for both alarms as well as two for my aunt.
While I was there, I thought about all the other folks who live there on very limited incomes and decided to get everyone new batteries.
Because many are disabled physically as well as mentally, rather than just leave the batteries on their doorstep with a note, I knocked on each door and installed the batteries for everyone.
It was a good day.
We are donating a bunch of supplies to the no-kill shelter in town and delivering meals to homebound seniors on Christmas Eve.
My son came home from work the other day talking about this woman he works with who is a single mom of two, no car, etc. who was saying that since Wal-Mart discontinued their layaway plan she didn't know how she was going to get Christmas for her kids. So, he and I are secretly adopting her family for Christmas. We are going to wrap everything and leave it in the office and the owner is going to tell her that someone dropped it off for her.
Does leaving boxes of freshly baked goodies around the neighborhood count?? Spent the last 4 DAYS, measuring, mixing, baking, cooling, frosting and decorating hundreds of different baked goods.
Left a $20 tip for a $9 meal today and planning on slipping some $$ to a coworker whose paycheck is woefully inadequate ...
I opened doors everywhere I went. I waved traffic ahead of me at stop signs. Even when they had the right of way. Twice!
There’s a homeless man that I have, unfortunately, had to ask to leave our parking lot on occasion. He has taken up a new post and I was able to locate him yesterday. I gave him some money and made sure he knew about a place nearby that offered free coffee and warmth all day. He did know of this place, told me his name was Jason, and that he was getting very close to being able to have his own apartment. I will probably try to find him again on Monday.
There is a young man in our neighborhood who has been out of work for about a year. He has also gained a lot of weight due to medication. I took him out yesterday and we got a new winter coat and other basic necessities (none of his clothes fit). We spent the day shopping and then met my husband at a local Italian place for dinner.
My husband and I went out for dinner and then drove through a local Christmas lights display. Once through the park, you are asked for a donation per car that is collected for a children’s charity. So, we paid for the family in the car behind us.
And also? At dinner, I had an extra coupon for the restaurant where we were eating. As we left, I gave it to a cute young couple at a nearby table.
My husband works with a lady who has been fostering two young boys because they were being neglected by their mother. Recently their mother decided to take them back. The woman and her partner were devastated. It was not an "official" kind of fostering through the state. They let them take the toys and clothes and everything and did not really have a choice but hope for the best.
A few days ago the mother decided she did not want the kids anymore and "returned" them to my husband's coworker and her partner. The kids have no toys, barely any clothes, what they have are summer clothes and it has gotten cold here. I gathered up quite a few clothes that my son has grown out of and that will probably fit the younger child and my husband took them to work tonight. I also filled a huge bag with toys, books, crayons, coloring books and stuffed animals that were either meant for my son’s Christmas or things that he did not play with too much anyways. I hope they can use everything, especially the clothes, but I figured if they don't fit they can take it to a resale store and get store credit and get things that fit.
Friday I responded to a WANTED: Christmas help posting on our local Freecycle from a woman who was looking for things for two kids for Christmas. She responded that she had found things for those two, but had just heard from another woman who had taken in two girls whose mother had just passed away. Apparently the girls came to her with very little. I went to Penney’s Saturday morning doorbuster sale armed with the $ off coupons and bought three outfits for two girls 11 and 15 years old and dropped them off at the Freecycle poster's house. She emailed me later that the woman was overjoyed when she brought them to her.
I gave the mall security guard at the Target entrance a roll of quarters so the next forty people who took a cart got one for free.
Went to Petco, needed dog food, went to the biscuit bar, bought an extra bag doggie delights, went to the drive-thru bank, gave them to my favorite teller for others who bank with their ever so happy doggers.
