Day 264 (December 29th)--House of Charity

Today I volunteered along with a community group I am involved with, to serve meals at the house of Charity in Downtown Minneapolis. I was on the hots side and served over 134 people by myself! They said it was a good thing our group showed up or they would not have been able to get everyone served. Upon talking with the assistant manager I found out that the people are amongst the increasing number or people have jobs but cannot afford the cost of food because every bit of their paychecks are going to meet their mortgage. I am planning on helping out here at least once a month.

-Jackie

Day 263 (December 27th)--Caps

I love stuffed mushroom caps so today I decided to try and make some. They were good but not restaurant quality. I might try to make them more often anyway.

-Jackie

Day 262 (December 26th)--Forgiveness

Early in 2008 I had a friendship of mine come to an end after 14 years. There was a lot of hurt on both ends and I spent a good part of the year struggling with this. Over the last few weeks I have been finding myself really being able to let it go and today I was able to send a letter of forgiveness to this former friend along with an apology for things that happened on my end. I am sure if I will ever be at the point where I can be friends with this person again but it's enough to be able to forgive and move on....

-Jackie

Day 261 (December 25th)--My RAK

I have been very inspired by Jen's everyday giving blog (see link on the side of this page) and all the Random acts of Kindness she has done. She has reminded me you do not need a lot of money or be a board member of a charity to help them out. The little things can help just as much. So today I figured out what my main Random act of kindness for the year will be. But you will have to wait and see because it will be the subject on a new thing coming soon....

-Jackie

Day 260 (December 24th)--It takes a village

My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve and then has a more laid back day on Christmas itself. Tonight as we were opening gifts we found out that my Mother has bought in all of our names six tons of bricks (I believe it was six tons) to help build a hospital in Africa through Worldvision. I was very excited to hear about this as this is something I have been wanting to do.

-Jackie

Day 259 (December 23rd)--Family Style

Today for our work company Christmas party we went to Buca, which is an Italian Restaurant in Minneapolis. The meals there are served family style so I had a family style dinner with my co-workers. We passed around many dishes from Eggplant parmigiana to Brushetta to garlic mashed potatoes. I also tried Clam Muscles for the first time. YUMMY!

-Jackie

Day 258 (December 22nd)--Care Package

I have a friend who has had a pretty rough year. She is really struggling to get into the Christmas spirit this year so I decided to send her a small care package to let her know I am thinking of her. I am hoping it will brighten up her Holiday season. It went to Atlanta and will probably get there after Christmas.

-Jackie