It's Cookie Time!

No, not quite cookie-baking or swapping time.

It's Cookie-Time Bag donation time.

Yes, my Brownie troop is collecting self-contained bags of cookie-baking materials to donate to the local food pantries to sweeten the holidays of the people they serve.  It's similar to our Birthday-in-a-Bag donations in celebration of Juliette Gordon Low's birthday.

Here are the details, in case you'd like to try it with your service organization (but note that I'm not soliciting or collecting bags from people online):

We’re collecting

COOKIE-TIME BAGS

for local food pantries

What is a Cookie-Time Bag?  A Cookie-Time Bag is a self-contained bag with everything someone needs to make and decorate cookies during the holidays.

Who needs a Cookie-Time Bag?  Everyone likes to bake cookies, especially during the holidays!  However, sometimes circumstances occur that prevent this from happening.  A Cookie-Time Bag can sweeten the holidays.

Where will the Cookie-Time Bags go?  Each Cookie-Time Bag collected will be delivered to local food pantries, by December 13, to be distributed to the families they serve.

                                                                 

What goes in a Cookie Time Bag?

·         Dry mix for cut-out cookies, such as sugar cookie or gingerbread cookie mix  (no chocolate chip or peanut butter, refrigerated,  or frozen dough please)

·         Can or tubes of frosting

·         Sprinkles or other decorations

·         Cookie cutters (for example:  snowflake, snowman, gingerbread people, stars)

·         Disposable aluminum sheet for baking

·         Decorative bag to hold all the items

·         Optional:  napkins and plates for cookie party; cookie tin for storage

Be sure to include a note!  Suggested Text:

Happy Holidays from Girl Scout Troop #

Girl Scouts love cookies and we want to share them with you.  Inside you will find everything you need to make your own cookies for the holidays.  We wish you a happy new year!

Contact details:  If you would like to participate, e-mail your troop number, contact person and number of bags.  Bags must either be brought to the Adult Volunteer Meeting  or delivered to ____ by December 11.  Thank you!

Fleeced

I'm covered in little bits of fleece fuzz.  In fact, it's been quite a fuzzy day over here.  First, I cut a yard of rainbow-striped fleece into three scarves, fringing the bottom in 1"-strips; one for me, two for the local community Coat Closet.  Then, one of the parent volunteers of our Brownie troop came over to help cut down to size the fleece we're using to make blankets for hospice patients at Thursday's meeting.  Then, while Sis was at gymnastics, Bud and I made a fleece pillowcase for a large 25 x 25" fluffy feather pillow.  And it is this light pastel rainbow micro-fleece which shed all over me, Bud, and the living room, including Albus the cat who kept trying to help.  I've cut all of the extra scraps into more scarves for the coat closet.  And the non-scarf-sized remnants were braided into "chew toys" which the cats actually chased around the house!  Who knew fleece could be such fun?!

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Fleece No-Sew Pillowcase

pillowform, size of your choice
fleece, color(s) of your choice

Measure the size of your pillow.  Add 8" to each dimension.  For example:  our pillow was 25 x 25"  so I cut 2 pieces of fleece 33 x 33".

Place fleece wrong sides together (i.e. right sides facing outwards.) Using a piece of cardboard cut 4 x 4", cut a 4 x 4" square out of each corner.  Then cut fringe 4" long and 1" wide along each side.

Tie three sides of the fleece together using the knot of your choice.  Insert the pillowform and tie the fourth side.

You Have to Be Carefully Taught

The kids have little tripartite banks they received at school that are labeled "spend, save, share." They were fascinated by the three slots and enjoyed putting money in each, not caring what the category was.

Like most 6-year olds, my kids vacillate between utterly selfish and surprisingly generous. There's really little telling when one will fetch a lovey and a bandaid for the other . . . or knock'em down again.

Of course, as Mom, I want to encourage the former, stress the "share" part of the piggy bank. We haven't done any family volunteer activities, mainly because of my situation this last year, but do regularly involve the kids in giving--to the food pantry, the coat drive, the gift collection at Christmas and Easter for kids in the shelter, and even sending money, including a part of their Chinese New Year money, to animal projects, the Red Cross during disasters, and the like.

And then I read Nicholas Kristof's Op-Ed today about Rachel, a young girl who routinely cut her hair for Locks of Love and also canceled her birthday party and had friends donate $9 each for clean water for children in Africa. Tragically, a month after her birthday, she was injured in a car accident and later died. In her name, $960,000 has been collected, up from the $220 she collected from her birthday. It's not what her family must have imagined for her ninth year, but it's a beautiful gift in her memory.

Similarly, and closer to home, a wonderful project is taking place in Austin, Texas, in honor of Janna Plentl, a friend of my family's, whose life was similarly cut short by non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She was an architect devoted to environmental causes and this year Austin's Habitat for Humanity is building a green house for a single mom with funds raised in Janna's honor and matched by her family.

We'll be donating to both causes, with the kids, who will also start getting $3 a week to put in those banks of theirs so that they, too, can learn to give to others, just like Rachel and Janna.