19 Days to go...

When I started this advent calendar project it was with this in mind - that it should be about quality time spent together, fun (mostly tv-free) and creative activities and also to give the children the opportunity to truly experience the gift of giving, not just on Christmas day, but every day until the day before Christmas.

Today was such an extremely rewarding day!

I gave the kids their little boxes in the car as soon as we got Bianca from school at 3pm. Her face lit up when she read the little piece of paper saying what the activity would be and she said "oh, this is soooo exciting!"


The activity for today was to take the biscuits we made yesterday (30 packets) and deliver them to the Sevenoaks Retrirement Village. I explained that Christmas is about the gift of giving, where we don't expect something back in return, but simply that it is to make somebody else's day special. And so off we went.

When we got there we saw the manager and she arranged for us to be taken through to the dementia unit. Now I must admit that I felt a little unsure about what to expect. I have never seen a dementia unit and the only visual image I have in my mind is from what my mum used to tell me when my grandmother was in her local dementia unit. But I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived. The look of excitement on the residents' faces was absolutely worth it. They kept saying "what lovely girls!" And sure, they might not remember tomorrow, but it felt so incredibly rewarding and great to know that we made their day today. That in our small way we were able to brighten somebody else's day today! Because of privacy rules, I wasn't able to take photos as the girls were handing out the biscuits.

This photo was taken just before we were taken through to deliver our biscuits:


Thank you Sevenoaks for letting us do this and for helping my girls learn about the "gift of giving".

So Reader, what will you do this December to celebrate the "gift of giving?"