Random Acts of Kindness #BlogItForward

My biggest pleasure at Christmas is watching people's faces show surprise and delight when they open the presents that I've spent ages hunting down or creating. Sure, it's nice to receive presents too but I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I get more enjoyment out of watching everyone else open their presents than opening my own.

Throughout the months of December and January, Wayfair have challenged bloggers to spread festive cheer by doing a good deed. Deeds could include any act of kindness, no matter how big or small. They gave some examples and I'm pleased to see that some of them are things that I've already done - sending flowers to the office staff at your child's school (well, mine was the office staff at the school I work in and it was a box of chocolates brought back from Poland), making baked treats for a neighbour or offering to do the shopping for an elderly neighbour (we've semi-adopted the little old lady on the corner and often pop in to see if she needs anything - time's run away with us lately but I was just saying last week that we must go and see her and take along whatever we've been baking) and clearing the snow from a neighbour's driveway while they're at work (I shovelled and salted the pavement all the way to the corner last time there was snow).

Showing kindness to others is one of the biggest life lessons that I want to teach to the Madhouse kids so I'm always trying to find ways to reinforce the message. If you saw my #SilentSunday picture today, you'll have seen that we were at a kids' carnival yesterday, which ended with people throwing soft toys to the kids' from the balcony of the town hall. Pierre (with a little help from us) managed to get two but a little girl next to us was crying her eyes out because she didn't get one - I discreetly asked Pierre if it would be OK and he instantly agreed to giving her one of ours. On the way to pick up the sachet of sweets offered to all the kids, we passed a boy (quite a big one, in his teens) who was clutching about six or seven of the soft toys and Pierre grabbed my hand and said "look Mum, he could have shared them rather than taking them all for himself when some people didn't get any." Sophie is also working on a project at school to collect toys to take to the children's ward of the local hospital. Both of these examples make me very proud.

The Blog it Forward challenge ends today, so I won't bother tagging anyone else (I was tagged by the lovely Ali at Dragons & Fairydust), but along with Wayfair, I encourage everyone to keep spreading acts of kindness anyway!

Disclosure : Wayfair will donate £50 to Habitat for Humanity in return for this blogpost