12 Acts of Kindness: Acts 9 and 10

One of the benefits of only attending church every other week is that the week we don't attend, we can watch it online. That was the case this Sunday...and it allowed us to spend the entire day working on a couple more acts of kindness. For 3-4 hours, we navigated our little community out here in West Mountain to deliver 300 neighbor gifts! If I'm being completely honest, I wasn't as excited about this act. It seems to get bigger and bigger each year and more confusing to figure out addresses; however, I got several fun texts and comments from those who received our little gift, which made all my frustration worth it in the end. This year, we gave out 6 foot extension cords. With all the signs indicating 6 feet of distance as what is appropriate to "social distance" to avoid the spread of the virus, we felt that this would be a funny gift. I printed out little tags that said, "6 ft apart but still connected. Merry Christmas! Love the Southwicks" Even in all my huffing and puffing as I managed the maps and directed Jeff where to drive, we still laughed pretty hard as the boys stumbled up driveways (mainly Jonas because he was using my slippers since he didn't put his shoes on) and almost toppled out of the windows as they reached for distant mailboxes.

We ended the evening with a little Christmas concert for Gma Thompson (the boys' great-grandmother). We haven't been able to visit her much since the virus infiltrated our lives, but we definitely haven't forgotten about her. The boys spent time practicing throughout the week. Jonas played Silent Night (or a rough version of that song) on the ukulele while I sang then Danny played O Come Emmanuel on the cello. I'm grateful for these boys' musical gifts. This was another act of kindness where we could see the recipient's reaction...and Gma T loved it. I am grateful that I have been able to know this wonderful woman. She is poised yet spunky. She tries to be so positive even when you know she may not be feeling it. She is quiet yet powerful. Even though her body may be getting tired, her mind is just as sharp as ever. I hope we get a few more Christmases with her; still, we are grateful for the ones we have had.