Cut Out For Great Things

Tonight I'm excited because tomorrow I'm putting these festive

cookie cutters on the tables at our holiday staff meeting

as table decor that teachers can take home with them.

They were super fun to make, in part because my husband helped me. 

We found the cutters on sale at Michael's and just added the tag. 

I gave one to my friend Melissa today,

and she asked if I found this idea on Pinterest.

It was kind of cool to say that I thought it up all by myself.

Then today, I decided to bring this beautiful image to life

onto a life-sized wall display outside of our learning space.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out,

especially when one of my fourth-grade boys asked

if I meant for the colored papers to be like the ornaments.

As we count down the days to our holiday break,

we're working with intention to make our days count.

To show caring to one another.

To be joy-makers.

To remember the less fortunate by donating gifts for the Blue Santa drive and by bringing in quarters so that our Student Council leaders can buy fleece for blankets that'll warm up our friends who are homeless.

Photo courtesy of Nancy Gruener at Gilmore Elementary

On Friday afternoon, I got to help Kate Campbell, a junior at FHS, distribute these donations from her Books And Blessings campaign. Because of her generosity and love, every student who was displaced in Harvey's floodwaters four months ago got to shop for seven new-to-them books to help rebuild their personal libraries. Such a blessing to see the joy in their eyes as they got to choose their new treasures. My favorite was the fourth-grade girl who chose a book for everyone in her family. 

Sharing is caring after all.

In this afternoon's mail, I got a beautiful Christmas card

from a Twitter friend up in Canada,

with a $5 bill asking me to pay it forward.

I think I'll use it to buy the baking supplies we'll need to make 

a second batch of cut-out sour cream sugar cookies . . .

and take them to a family whose kitchen was destroyed 

by the hurricane and isn't put back together just yet.

Thank you, Roman, for being an example for kindness;

you make our world better!

And in case you haven't heard Sheryl Crowe's tribute 

to Sandy Hook yet, click {here} to listen to The Dreaming Kind.

Yep, we are definitely cut out to do great things.

What do you have planned to spread joy tomorrow?