#GivingTuesday and December Kindness

Did you participate in #GivingTuesday this week?

The idea of #GivingTuesday is that after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, our nation would dedicate Tuesday to give back to others through time or money.  The idea originated last year (2012) by the United Nations Foundation and 92Y - I love it because they encourage that you give to the things that matter to YOU!  It's not an effort to get you to donate to some big organization, just do what you can with what you have for who you care about.  But if everyone does that on the same day it's amazing and powerful.  Here's a cool video explaining the idea of #GivingTuesday

Visit here to read some awesome stories of people giving time and money to others for #GivingTuesday, or search the hashtag on facebook or instagram to see posts too!

We decided to spend our #GivingTuesday evening out shopping for our adopted family from Salvation Army for Christmas.  It is one of our 12 Months of Kindness Acts - and one of our favorites, so we knew #GivingTuesday was the perfect opportunity to doing what we care about for someone else.

our #unselfie post

We had a chat with the kids on the way to the shopping center that we were shopping for other people today, not for ourselves.  We talked about our two little girls and our 'grandma and grandpa' (2 seniors that we also adopted) that needed some help getting gifts for Christmas.  Grey said, "Doesn't Santa get the gifts?" and we told him that yes, Santa usually gets the gifts -but if we get them the gifts it is like we are part of Santa's team...which sounded pretty awesome to him.

As we wanted to get as much as we could for our family (while also staying within our own means) we headed to Five Below and Ross's to pick up the gifts.  The kids helped pick out gifts for the girls based off of their likes - Grey picked out markers for our 9year old and Gem picked out a cat purse (with some guidance) for our 4year old.  We had to remind a few times, "yes, that skateboard looks really cool, but remember, we are shopping for the girls today."

After about an hour and half and less than $200, we were able to spread a little Christmas joy to four strangers that night.

I read an article last week on HuffPost called 7 Habits of Grateful People and the one that touched a chord with me was that grateful people use social media mindfully.  I love social media outlets usually, but I have had a rough week and half with facebook through all the Thanksgiving/Black Friday condemnations that were being tossed about.  Whether to shop or work or blah blah blah.  I don't normally pay attention or log into social media for that sort of blame game and accusation mania.  So reading this article reminded me that logging in with a mindful intent - to read stories and see images that remind us to be grateful, to see the good in the world, needs to be at the center of my mind each time - otherwise, I feel myself getting this awful taste in my mouth about the state of the world.  

#GivingTuesday was the shining light at the end of that crazy social media week for me.  After all that complaining and accusation, it was awesome to log in to see how many people were acting on their words.  You don't like what the world looks like?  Then, DO SOMETHING.  And so many people did just that on #GivingTuesday.  I really loved it and loved participating in a nationwide day of giving.

So, what did you do for #GivingTuesday?

How do you give back regularly?

Think about it now (and let me know in the comments!), because it's almost time for a brand new year of 12 months of Kindness!!