Saturday December 21

This morning was spent cleaning.

Lots of laundry to fold and put away.

Room to be deep cleaned....

Bathrooms, floors, kitchen.

It all got cleaned today.

The kids were great helpers.

There were a few moans and groan here and there, but we got past it.

Then we had lunch and It was time to pay the kids for their chores, and last weeks, cause I forgot.

I told them they could have the choice.

They could take their money and we would go about our day and do whatever we want OR we could bunch all the money together and go do things for others.

They all thought it would be great to go out and do some good.

We had a few plans before we headed out.

We wanted to buy donuts and give them to construction workers.....

But it is Saturday and we couldn't find any.

So we decided to buy some lunch for some people begging on the side of the road.

While we did that, we also paid for the car behind us at the fast food place.

Then we went to the dollar store, and each kid hid three dollar bills.

That is a favorite.

It was so packed in there....so many people!

It is fun to see the kids when they find the place they want to stick the dollar.

It is usually by the stuff they love themselves :)

That left us with $6.

We went and bought some candy canes and ribbon.

Then we went to the gas station and bought 4 hot chocolates.

While we were pumping gas, a mailman pulled up.

Porter said, "Hey, can we give him some hot chocolate?"

So I grabbed him and we hopped out and waited for the guy to come back out of the store, and Porter handed him the candy canes and hot chocolate and said "Merry Christmas".

It was awesomely adorable :)

Then the big girls gave candy canes and hot chocolate to the bell ringer at Wal-mart.

And the last two went to two more people sitting by the side of the road.

It was a fun time.
We also stopped by to see the reindeer.
The kids thought it was pretty fun.

We got home and bundled up and decided to make a snowman and do some sledding together.

It was a nice day and all the kids had fun going for rides on Dads sled.

After dinner, we loaded up in the car and took little treats and cards to our neighbors.

It turned out to be a pretty good day.

I do wish we would stop fighting.

I don't know if it is just me noticing it more, or because of the time of year...but we sure seem to be fighting a lot around here.

It kind of makes me sad.

I know all families fight.....but I don't see how they could be fighting more than our kids.

They just seem so mean to each other.

I really want to change that.

That is why I thought today's giving would be a good thing.

And I do think it was......

I just want them to treat each other as nice as they treat the people outside the family!

Why do we save our nice-ness for strangers, and treat the ones we love so badly??????

*****