When there are cats and Christmas trees in the house, the inevitable happens. The cat hangs out under the tree. (Do dogs do this, too? Our dog was always too big to fit under there, but maybe smaller dogs like to get under the tree?) This behavior stops when we fill that space up with presents, but I have a thing about not putting presents under the tree until a few days before Christmas. In the meantime, Gracie’s spot is safe. At least until Zoe – the other cat – decides it is her turn. Fortunately both of them leave the ornaments alone, and somehow, neither of them is interested in climbing the tree. I know. I’m lucky. I think we’ll keep them.
Do you do appetizers or brunches during the holidays? Here is a good recipe that always go over well. (And it’s easy. We all need easy during the holidays.)
Bacon-Wrapped Waterchestnuts
2 cans of whole water chestnuts
1 lb of bacon, sliced into thirds
Sauce:
1 cup ketchup
1 cup sugar
1 Tbl. lemon juice
(OR your favorite BBQ sauce)
Wrap each water chestnut with bacon and secure with a toothpick. Layer on a shallow edged pan and bake at 350 degrees for one hour, or until the bacon looks done. Drain and then pour the sauce over everything. Put back in oven until sauce is heated through.
We’re hoping to be heading out of town for the weekend, but I’ll be back to emails on Tuesday. (Hoping, meaning we’re keeping our eye on the storms going across the midwest. We were supposed to be gone Friday- Sunday, but now we’re trying for Saturday-Monday. Email Susan if you need help on Monday – susan AT theloopyewe DOT com. Or call!) I can’t believe that next week is Christmas already. This month went WAY too fast.
Don’t forget to leave your RAKs in the comments today! We have another drawing for this week’s contest and I’ll announce the winner on Monday again. I love reading your RAKs!
Sheri hopingtogetsomegoodknittingdoneinthecaronourquicktrip
My apartment beagle is completely enamored with the tree skirt this year. I have no idea what about that red plastic she finds so intriguing, but she won’t leave it alone; we put the whole tree (it’s a little guy, maybe 3ft) up on a table as not to temp her into destruction.
I’m not sure how random my RAK is this week as it was a fairly organized event in my office, but I got to go out Christmas shopping for two people (one child, one senior) currently in the social services system in my town. My department has this event organized with local social workers to provide holiday cheer for those who may not have much otherwise, and it really made me feel great to get to buy gifts for others=) I also cleared out half my pantry for the state workers food drive!
My RAKs are smaller than many — I am fortunate that, at least at this moment, my friends and neighbors are crisis-free. May it remain so! But — I always have change in my pocket, because most places I go I need to feed the parking meter. Several times this week, as I walked along the row, I added quarters to meters about to expire, or already expired. The other one — there’s a man who lives 6 or 7 blocks away who clearly inhabits an alternate universe. On days when it’s not raining, he stands on a certain corner, where there’s a traffic light, and directs traffic, very enthusiastically. Most people ignore him; some yell at him or honk; I’ve been waving. He loves it.
Someone on a bulletin board I frequent posted to the group located in my area asking if someone here might be willing to do her a favor and buy something at a local shop she wasn’t able to get in her area.
I said I’d be happy to do it and then after I bought it realized I wanted to send it to her without her paying me back for it. I did that this week, and if it makes her as happy as it made me, we’re both going to be pretty darn happy.
I also gave another donation to the food bank, and donated some money to them as well. We are hurting too, these days, but we are lucky enough to have food and shelter, and not everyone does.
I donated vacation time to our office manager, who just had surgery and was out of leave time. She’s off on unpaid leave without others donating time.
I agree with a lot of the posters – I just feel so darned fortunate especially now.
My family went out to eat the other night, to let my daughter collect her free birthday dinner, and had an opportunity for a little RAK. We got there later in the evening when it was kinda close to closing time, but not too close. The girl who sat us told us that our server would be right over and then she came back and said that she guessed that she was our server. She was wonderful!! The kitchen messed up my 5 yr old’s order twice in their rush to close the kitchen and she kept making them try again until they got it right. Please note that we were very gracious and pleasant not grumpy. She was just awesome! When the bill came DH made sure she got a great tip, and then he also went and told the manager what a great job she had done. When we got home we went to the restaurant’s website and left feedback for her there as well so that her boss could show her. It made me feel real good to know that she would find out how appreciative we were. 🙂
I also want to add a little brag on my daughter. She is really lucky at finding change on the ground and for the past couple of weeks she has been dropping it either in the Salvation Army buckets of giving it to people who are working in a position of service. Today she took a $1 out of her birthday money and put in the bucket as we were going into a store. It made me so proud of her. 😀
I sent some handspun yarn to a blog reader who had recently undergone surgery and seemed a little blue. I think it helped! 🙂
This one was actually a friend’s idea, but it ended up as a joint effort. We were meeting for brunch on a cold, wet, windy day, and she saw a homeless woman in front of the cafe, asking for change. My friend invited her in, and we paid for her breakfast and a cup of coffee so that she could have a warm meal, and a warm place to sit and eat it, instead of having to eek out enough change for a cup of coffee to go. Our server was kind and caring towards the woman, too, which just made the whole thing better.
I sent someone money through paypal because she wrote on her blog about a major plumbing disaster that comes right as she’s trying to get a handle on her newly diagnosed bipolar disorder.
OK, not such a big deal, but after the Christmas Concert for my daughter’s chorus, my daughter’s best friend asked to borrow my phone to call her mom for a ride home. I said, no way, I’ll drive you home. She has two little sisters at home, so I know her mom appreciated not having to pack them into the car to come back over to the school 🙂
I shovel the end of my neighbors’ driveways after their paid shovelers leave and the city comes thru to plow. Happy holidays to all the loopy personnel !!!!!!!
It was quite a week here in NH where we were hit pretty hard by an ice storm. We had no power for 6 days but do have a generator. We had many neighbors and friends come by to get warm and shower. (where we live no power means no water) We also fed some neighbors who were unable to cook without their power.
I sent my soldier (adopted at http://www.soldiersangels.org) his December package and included small gifts for him to have on hand to give to others and I sent 23 Christmas Cards to a group of female soldiers that my team is supporting through their deployment.
Small little things can add up to a mountain of good.
I took flowers to our financial secretary at church. She is a retired teacher who still helps out a lot at my kids elementary school. She has been picking up every illness the kids have decided to pass around this year so has not been able to get out as much and has been a bit down because of this. I hope it cheered up her day a bit!
RAK’s this week:
Purposely held doors open for those either coming in or out of a store
We support a child through World Vision, but there is also a “catalog” that can be ordered from to help support families with animals to help their livelihood. I let my kids pick out something that they wanted to donate through this catalog. My son picked 5 ducks and my daughter picked 2 chickens. This will help feed families through the eggs that these both produce, along with them being able to sell additional ducks and chickens to help support their family. The kids enjoyed being able to pick something out for someone else.
There was an organization that had a table set up outside of Costco that with a donation would donate a toy to a child that for some reason or another is enduring a long hospital stay. So the my kids picked out which toy they wanted a child to receive and it only cost me $10.
Our cats love to sleep under the tree! So cute. My RAK was to put extra money into the parking meter at the library today. I was there for 10 minutes, but added enough money for three hours. I hope you get to go see Janice this weekend. Safe travels.
Sending thoughts your way for safe travel.
RAK for this week:
There is a man at my work that never brings his lunch. I don’t know if he doesn’t have time or doesn’t have leftovers but he is always wanting to share a slice or a chinese entree, so I bought a few 5.00 gift certificates at his favorite places and put them in an unsigned card.
I had an act of kindness given to me that I would like to tell you about. I bring cookies to work on most Monday’s. ( I love to bake) Today one of my coworkers handed me a bag and then walked out the door. I looked inside and there was a giant bag of craisins, a giant bag of chocolate chips, and a giant bag of walnuts! You could have knocked me over with a feather.
Hi,
I live in the St. Louis area. As you know, Sheri, there was sleet on Tuesday during the day, and folks leaving work had to scrape their cars (more than a little). While my heater was running, I scraped someone else’s car, then I did mine when it was warmer.
Happy Holidays!
Lisa
My RAKs have been driving related, picking up friends and dropping them off so they don’t have to walk through the snow and cold, giving up parking spaces, letting cars in before me in a long line, just things to make driving a little more pleasant. 🙂
Happy Holidays to all! My RAKs have been DD related. Felted a hat for her that she knit for one of her work friends. It came out much bigger than expected, and rather than frog and start over I suggested that we shrink it. Also installed new memory in her laptop so she could upgrade her OS.
I took four $5 Starbucks gift card for each of the girls who work at the UPS store and a tray of Christmas cookies for them to share. They have been working very hard this time of year. I wanted them to know their hard work is appreciated.
Have a safe trip and a Merry Christmas!
My RAOK for the week was a family effort. We were at our local McDonald’s, and had bought our daughters Happy Meals. The prize was a My Little Pony, and the girls loved theirs. There was a little girl there who was asking her grandfather to get her a Happy Meal, but they had already sat down with their food.
I asked Hubby to buy an extra pony. He in turn had our daughters give the pony to the little girl, whose grandfather kept on insisting he pay for it.
This week’s intentional act was to be a secret Santa to a Ravelry/Plurk pal (who also had a birthday this week). Sent her some fun stuff that she’s not expecting. Oh, I’m still trying to be nice to other drivers.
We don’t have cats, but my Jack Russell Terrier love ONE ornament, the little wool sheep I bought from TLE last year. She licks it continually so I have to put it high on the tree.
My RAOK was to give a scarf I made for me to someone who just moved to snow-ville from Florida. A bad winter to move!
I’ve been trying to do a RAK every day in December… but little did I expect to get a “reward” like I did. On Mon. a former coworker called with questions for our supervisor. To put it bluntly, I really never liked this woman. She is somewhat “needy” and can be very whiny… and I often just don’t have much patience for her. I answered the phone, but instead of passing her off as politely as I could, I took the time to ask her how she was (her health is bad), how the family was, etc… the supervisor she called for didn’t even want to talk to her, and told me to take a message!!!! As we were talking, she told me that she was basically homebound as her new medication prevented her from driving. She then told me that she thought of me every day in gratitude because two years ago I taught her how to knit… and that was just about all she could still do. She felt like it was the one useful activity she had left, and was busy kntting scarves for her family members!
Lessons Learned: Knitting can also give the gift of healing, AND take the time to connect with the people in your life (even if you don’t feel like it!!)…if I hadn’t taken the time to talk with my coworker, I never would have heard about her kntting journey, and my part in it!
Gosh…I am without a voice right now…and desperately trying to recover from a bad cold…..but with Christmas right around the corner…it’s not difficult to do “little things” that will hopefully….make a difference for someone!
My husband and I picked tangerines …and took 10 grocery bags full of fruit down to our local food bank for distribution to the needy.
Today…while trying to mail a heavy box at our local PO…I noticed a frail elderly woman trying to open the door while carrying a bunch of packages to mail. She set her packages down on the PO boxes…while trying to catch her breath…I cut in line and took her packages up to the front counter for her….and she thanked me because she said that she couldn’t carry the packages and her cane…! Little did I know that this woman could barely stand on her own much less carry a bunch of mail.
One of the women at my work is having a hard time financially because her husband was layed off a couple of months ago. The rest of the women at work decided to chip in and give her some extra money for Christmas so she could get presents for her grandchildren and such. We gave her the card with the money today. She cried. =)
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!
Couple of RAK’s–I was going to be off for my new daughter-in-law’s graduation from THE Florida State University. I worked late the night before seeing extra patients so my co-worker would not have to work late the next day. Also my friend and I sing together at our church. This week, our hospital sponsered a worship service for Christmas for the patients and their families. We were so blessed to be able to sing and lead the carols for this service. Many of our patients will not be home for Christmas and are not able to have passes to go out for Christmas services. I am so thankful our hospital still values the spiritual health of our patients as well as the physical health. God bless!!
I think the cats like the heat from the lights. Our cats used to chase each other up the tree. It was always laying on the floor in the morning.
I hope you are able to take your quick weekend trip, and have safe travel.
My sister makes an appetizer similar to that but she makes an Asian marinade for them instead of the bbq sauce. Very tasty.
RAK: I haven’t been out much this week to be doing any RAKs but I did unload an elderly lady’s grocery cart for her at the grocery store this week.
Have a great weekend with your family
Good luck with your travels. Stay safe and warm!
I had a truly rotten week last week, working a convention that had me sleep-deprived and miserable. the “payoff” for the week in hades was a free day at the resort hotel in Florida where the convention was held. On the way back from the beach, I passed a couple at the beach entrance and the woman’s foot was bleeding big-time. There was a group of hotel workers up by the hotel and I made sure they knew she was having problems with the cut on her foot. And I stood around until I was sure someone had understood what was going on.
We had spent the week referring to the hotel staff as “Santa” so I’m hopeful they were able to help her quickly. (and I hope that qualifies as a RAK. Yeah, it’s something anyone should do, but too many people just walk by).
My RAK this week was to donate an electric scooter (wheelchair) to a woman who has difficulty making trips outside of her home. She had wanted one for a long time and was so appreciative it made me feel just as good!
Cats and dog and tree? Only in my dreams…
Some random, one not-so-random, and four people to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude…
Random – I purchased an extra coffee “debit” card at the local cafe and asked the cashier to use it pay for coffee for people who looked liked they could use a day-brightening.
Not-so-random — We had a cubicle decorating contest at work and I won 🙂 But the employees of one of the departments had worked together on their area and had a real holiday team spirit thing going. It seemed so right to pass the prize, a $75 movie pass, on to them instead of keeping it. They were really surprised and delighted and said they’d each take a turn using it over the next few weekends.
And finally, I was the recipient of my incredible neighbors’ AOK this week. In a semiconscious state, likely induced by the fear of an afternoon dental appointment, I somehow managed to leave the house with my indoor dog outside — in my not-very-securely fenced backyard. It would be a grossly inaccurate to say that she is a good candidate for being out on the streets alone. Besides her fear-based agressive tendencies, she has not a single drop of car-sense and an insatiable urge to chase squirrels. So, on a cold rainy day, my dear neighbors saw that she had escaped my yard and watched over her for several hours. Although she wouldn’t let them catch her, they managed to keep her out of trouble until I could get home. I hate to think what might have happened to her, or what she might have done without her guardian angels.
Cookies for work!
My niece makes the same water chestnuts and they are always the first thing gone.
i helped the lady in line behind me at the post office select the appropriate packaging for her stuff, helped her tape down the ribbon on her package, and gave her my left-over newspapers to cushion her package. she told me she’s so broke all she could afford to send her sister wasa telephone. I felt kinda bad for her.
May not be so random but… There is a teenage (18) girl who helps on the farm. Her Mom has some mental problems and kicked her out of the house after she physically abused her. She wants to finish school and had no where to go, so we took her in. Of course we have always adored her and are glad to help her out.
Hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday whatever they celebrate.
those look yummy! our cat this year thinks the branches are to low on the tree, so she lies near it but not under it. I miss seeing her under it!
My RAK this week was letting cars pull in front of us in the parking lot they call a freeway. It took us 2 1/2 hours to go the 16 miles it usually takes 15-20 for. We also stopped to help a few drivers, one who was off the road and teetering on 2 wheels, along with letting a few folks use my cell phone to call friends or tow trucks when needed.
My daughter Cait adds her RAK: Our neighbors went out of town for a family emergency and are now extending their need to be away. Daughter is collecting mail, papers, watching the house, and feeding the stray cats and raccoons they usually do as well as making extra shelter from the storms. The neighbors always try to pay her and she always refuses their money. She says this is all her RAK.
My husband came home the other night and asked me if we had any extra scarves or hats, as there were a lot of homeless people around his office in downtown Seattle. We’re having a very cold and snowy stretch of weather here, too! I didn’t really have anything, so my daughter and I bought hats and gloves the next day and sent them with him to work. He gave them to the man who runs a halfway house in the neighborhood and knows all the guys on the street. He was thrilled to get the items. My husband’s boss thought it was a great idea, and brought four jackets the next day, the guys at the coffee shop across the street wanted to participate, and I went to the thrift store and bought two jackets and three wool sweaters and sent them down as well. It feels good to have started this little donation ball rolling and to be able to help someone less fortunate feel a little bit warmer this winter.
My husband I belong to a car club that just had an event in which we asked our members to bring a toy for Toys for Tots. We managed to collect over 200 toys at the event and we even had two Marines who were assigned to our event to collect the toys which was nice because we got to thank them for protecting us at home too.
I’m not sure these are really random acts of kindness. They might just be part of my job. I’m a high school teacher. I gave $50 to the district welfare committee, bought $40 worth of food for the district food drive and chipped in a few more dollars when students were collecting to buy more food (we’ve got some great kids!). I stayed after school yesterday to let a kid take a test so he could go on vacation early,and gave up my planning period to fill in the wrestlers on what they would miss when they went to a tournament. Stayed after school today to fulfill a last minute request for a recommendation.
I donated to Doctors Without Borders and gave an extra gift to World Vision above our normal monthly giving. I’ve got a container of homemade Christmas candy all ready to give to a special neighbor this weekend as well 🙂
This week I tried to work in little things every day: letting people jump in line ahead of me at the store, making room for other cars to turn in to traffic, giving small donations whenever I had the opportunity, helping a bewildered older gentleman choose a sweater for his wife (I really enjoyed that one; he wanted to find something ‘as colorful and pretty as she is’).
Of our two old cats who are now gone as of a few years ago, one was a Christmas tree climber/aficionado and one wasn’t. The TreeHugger got into the tinsel his first year with us. Not good for cats. Fortunately, what he managed to get in — came out; but picture a fluffy small cat running around with tinsel sticking out from under his tail. My husband didn’t know it was still kind of attached and grabbed the tinsel — the cat was very indignant.
We didn’t put tinsel on any more after that.
RAK this week: I was at the store last weekend and saw a big box of those mini-creamers (half-and-half) that you get at restaurants. Ultra-pasteurized, so they don’t require refrigeration. I bought them and brought them anonymously to our work break room, because I know a lot of the other coffee drinkers, like me, prefer real dairy instead of powdered artificial creamer in our coffee. They seem to be being well received!
I did several things this week…I did the requisite Starbucks pay for the car behind you thing, sent some yarn to an online pal who needed a pick-me-up, and send some perfume to another online friend who’s going through a hard time. I just noticed that these were all niceties, not necessities and I hope I made someone feel indulged this week!
One of my RAK:
Building the dog barricade so that the dog can’t get behind the tree where he likes to hassle the low-hanging ornaments and hide his toys and bones.
Also, he likes to leap from the arm of the couch to the floor (this is a 35 lbs. dog, not a teacup poodle). Last year, he got over excited while barking at something outside and missed him landing spot — he ended up jumping ON the tree, knocking it over, causing a number of ornaments to break, and scaring the whole household with his howl of fright as he ran to hide under my bed. At least it was only ornaments hurt and no dog or human injuries. But, we’ve learned our lesson and there will be no dog leaps until after the tree is gone.
Today I was walking down Market St. in San Francisco and I saw a homeless man with a sign that said “I may be homeless but at least I’m not sitting on my arse shaking a cup.” He had a saxophone that was labeled for sale, I walked a little way down the street and felt like I had to turn around. I gave him a five dollar bill and said Merry Christmas, he wished me happy holidays and I turned around again. As I walked away I heard a saxophone playing Joy to the World. It made me feel so good, not the giving of money itself, but that I changed my mind and didn’t just walk by pretending I didn’t see him. And he could play that thing! I walked down the street knowing he was playing that song just for me.
I’m pretty much giving my hand-dyed sock yarn to anyone who wants it this Christmas. I’ve got some samples dyed up in a base I decided not to use, so off it goes. It feels really good.
My best friend just found out on Thursday that her mother has to begin dialysis. they knew the day would come, but coming at Christmas was a pretty tough blow. Her first dialysis is Sunday morning. I knit a pair of “fuzzy feet” from Knitty for her to keep her warm and to warm her heart. I’m going to felt them this morning and take them to her later today. Hopefully they will be dry enough to wear when she gets home tomorrow.
went through all the books I bought this year and donated them to the Friends of the
Library book sale. The proceeds go to the library for new computers,etc. So many kids don’t have one….
Tell Janice and everyone that the crew from Mississippi says hi! My RAK this week was to take all the leftover 6th graders (we gave them exams on Wednesday and then they don’t have to come to school for the rest of the week, but some parents sent them anyway) on Thursday and keep them in the library for a few hours. This left their teachers have some uninterrupted time to grade papers and plan for after break.
My RAK wasn’t exactly random. We were selling our 55 gallon long unused aquarium to a coworker with 2 little boys, and when her husband came over last night to pick it up, we decided to refuse to take their money. The youngest boy has had several open heart surgeries and is only 3 years old, and we just decided to play Santa Claus. After they got the tank home, my coworker called to thank us and put the boys on the phone (them thinking we were Santa and Mrs. Claus) and sang Jingle Bells to us. I’m not sure but that we got the better end of that deal! 🙂
Most of my RAKs have been small other than the one above like leaving change in penny dishes at cash registers or holding doors for people. I usually do the March for Babies but I normally wait until spring to sign up. But this year a bank that sponsors the walk is throwing in an additional $25 for every walker that signs up before Dec. 31. So this week I signed up for the March of Dimes walk early so they could get that little added bump.