A new tradition

Last January we started something new. All year long we encouraged the kids to do acts of kindness and watch for other family members doing them. We would then write them on slips of red, white, or green paper and put them in a box on the side of the fridge. As the year passed our box filled up and early in December we made a paper chain out of our papers and hung it up on the dining room. It was our acts of service chain. Towards the end of the month our chain was having a hard time staying up so we decided it was time to take it down. As we took it apart we stopped and remembered the past year as we read each slip of paper. The kids thought it was great fun to be reminded that they helped make mommy and daddy's bed and put away toys without being asked. We have already started working on our new chain for this Christmas and our goal is to make it longer than last years.

Reading each paper strip as we took the chain apart

Our pile of papers showing our year of good deeds