Love Thy Neighbor

We are attempting to build more meaning into Christmas and shift the focus away from just opening presents.  I over-buy for my kids, so don't come here looking for advice on how to tone that part down.  But even with the abundance of giving we do to one another in the family, I believe there is opportunity to spread that abundant giving spirit to others. 

This year I involved the girls in project Love Thy Neighbor.  I made that up.  There's no real project Love Thy Neighbor running around Pinterest or something.  Well there probably is, but that's not what we did.

We kept things simple. 

We made caramel popcorn and candied pecans.  Super simple recipes.  The girls did most of the work for the pecans which they thought was great.  I finished off the leftover caramel with apples at nap time.  Wins all around.

I found these great little boxes at Hobby Lobby for cheap and they were perfect to house our goodies.

Evelyn decided that a shopping cart was the perfect mode of delivery.  This also meant that every bump we hit toppled all the boxes out of the cart, but you just can't win them all.  There is one box hidden behind baby because Annie wanted in on the delivery action as well.

In a moment of bravery, Evelyn decided to take on the role of ringing the door bell and telling everyone "Happy Christmas".  Annie also would go up to the door and hand the person answering it a rock or leaf and tell them "Trick-or'Treat".  Festive.

The reality is though, that I wasn't really planning on putting this little endeavor on the blog.  I am though for one reason.  As we were walking by houses in our neighborhood where we were not delivering treats, this little conversation happened.

Me: (as Evelyn was headed up to a neighbor's door) Honey, we aren't delivering any there. 

Evelyn: Why not?

Me:  Well, um.  (Major loss for words here.) We don't know the people who live there.

Evelyn: (very confused look) Can I give them one anyway?

Me: No, we didn't make enough babe.

Next year operation Love Thy Neighbor will have to grow to actually include all our neighbors.  I don't want her to think that we can only do kind things to people in our neighborhood that we know.  I also felt a little bad that this house was only one block from our home.  We've lived here for a year.  And I have no idea who lives there.  Boo.