"Woah, a baby... That's so hipster."

I love a good visit from friends during the school day. Molls and Alli are home on Christmas Break and decided to come visit me during lunch with Panera, Diet Coke and baby Blake. I miss seeing both of them all the time so much-- I wish we could go back to Mellow Mushroom dates and Chick Flick Sundays sometimes-- but it was so good to see them today.

 

Molls and Alli both took a creative picture in my room. When it came time for Blake to take his next to the lazy days kitten he got freaked out, I'm pretty sure he thought the kitten was real. My 8th graders came back into the room just as my visitors were on the way out. The first comment from one of them, "Woah, a baby... That's so hipster." Not sure how that makes sense but we'll roll with it.

After school Taylor and Allison showed up at my house. They're back from IU and Colorado, it's crazy that they're in the middle of their Junior year. They have two of the very best hearts. We walked and talked and laughed all the way up the Monon to Starbucks and caught up on important things.

As we were leaving the barista gave us an extra Mocha that they had made by mistake. Right before they could drink it I remembered the #26acts I'd been talking about in class all day today.

Ann Curry has started a revolution. She tweeted, "What if? Imagine if everyone could commit to doing one act of kindness for every one of those children and adults killed in Newtown." People have committed in big ways. They're doing it. All across the country and now all around the world. #26acts to honor those 26 lives.

My students brainstormed their own lists of #26acts today and I challenged them to make them happen over Christmas Break. If they do some of them I want them to write me a letter and tell me about it. Now I can't wait to check my mailbox when I come back in two weeks and see how many of them follow through.

So before we could drink that extra Mocha I said, "Girls, we've got to give it away! I'll explain, but Al go give it to that guy." A man had just walked out of the store behind us and was about to cross the street. She went right up to him and said, "Excuse me Sir, we got this extra drink and we'd like you to have it."

He asked her if it was warm and then said, "Thank you so much. I've been looking for work all day and I'm getting so cold. This is just what I needed. Thank you." He took the drink and crossed the street. As we walked away we all had tears in our eyes. #26acts This is a bandwagon worth jumping on.

Next we went to the Houghton's Carmel Reunion Party for any leader or kid that has been a part of Carmel YL. Their house filled up with friends, some I know well and others I've never seen before. We ate pizza and looked at old pictures, hugged friends as they came in the door and told old stories. My two favorite parts of the night: Kylie made everyone go take a picture with her on Photo Booth, then we played "Guess what part of the nativity scene are you holding?" with Taylor, Ky and Dom.

Getting back together with old friends is always great. These girls (Lexy, Allison, Dom, Taylor and Kenzie) were all the main characters of my life when I started YL in Indy and it was good to catch up tonight.