Festive Countdown Day 5 and 6

Before I write about our festive activities, one turned out to be very special, I wanted to show a present idea I had for one of my teenage cousins.

The idea came to me way back in April when I saw a pack of tissues (4) which were decorated just like the packaging on the Love Heart sweets (1). One a theme had been established I kept my eye out for things wherever I went. I saw the address book next(3) and then during the summer I was in Wilkinsons chekcing out their stationery and picked up a set of mini erasers (6). I really wanted to get some kind of cosmetic/smellies set with the same packaging and although they are available they didn't fit into my budget. That may sound mean as they were only £5.00 but the agreed present budget between me and my aunt is £5.00, otherwise costs just spiral.

I was able to find a set of nail varnish in Love Heart shades which was labelled as Nail Candy (2) and a set of 3 lip gloss flavours in a box (5) labelled as Sweet Crush, so they were along the same kind of lines.

Now to Day 5. This was a great day in our festive countdown.
In the morning we left a box of cards on the table so when S came home from school she could sit down and write out all the cards she wanted to send to friends and teachers.
When I came home from work I asked her to write out a couple like the one below.

I had to go shopping that evening and the plan was that whilst we were having our shopping scanned through we would ask our cashier what their favourite bar of chocolate was, S would pop off to the confectionery aisle and get it, then once we had paid for it hand it over and wish the person serving us a Merry Christmas. S was excited about this Random Act of Kindness.
We struck up a conversation with our cashier and S asked her (she was called Melissa) 'what's your favourite chocolate bar?' only to be told she didn't eat chocolate as she didn't like it!
So I asked what she liked as a treat instead and she said her most favourite thing was a bag of Roast Beef flavour Monster Munch. S went off to find it. The cashier looked at me and asked what was happening, I said just wait and see and she asked with a big smile 'Is it Christmas?' When S came back with the crisps the cashier sent her off again to find some sweets she would like.
We paid for the shopping, S handed over the card and crisps and then the cashier asked us to wait whilst she paid for the sweets and then handed them over to S and wished her a Happy Christmas.
The grin on S's face as we left was so huge. Not only had she enjoyed carrying out a random act of kindness and in doing so made the cashier happy, she was genuinely surprised and delighted when she was given something in return. I thanked the cashier as well and said it hadn't been necessary as we were doing this to teach the children the importance and pleasure in giving but she said she wanted to return the gesture.
We plan on doing it again somewhere else before the countdown ends.

Day 6 being Friday we needed something relaxing so it was decided we would watch a Christmas movie we had never seen before and Arthur Christmas was chosen.
It's a really lovely movie, Bill Nighy as the voice of Grand Santa was outstanding, it certainly made me look forward to Christmas eve all the more.