The Final Klutz

Well tonight marks the last night that I will write a letter to Audrey from her elf Klutz.  On Christmas Eve he will head back to the North Pole, as elves do. I have not missed a single night and now have a collection of letters from her sweet elf.  Audrey has learned and done so much because of him. Here are some of the things we did:

• She learned about Native Americans and Indiginous People and their honest history in this country
• She learned that Christmas is not the only holiday during this time of year.  That not all people celebrate the same things or the same way
• Because of that, we celebrated Hanukkah this year, made a menorah, sang with friends over zoom on the third night, left a little painted rock for our Jewish neighbor on every new night. 
• She wrote letters to friends she hasn’t seen in a while
• She did a “how are you feeling/doing?” challenge where she had to ask someone in her class how they were each day.  Learning that it matters when we ask that question to one another.
• She learned how to fill her “bucket”, fill others buckets and what it means to take from another’s.
• She learned and made a list of ways to love herself, especially in moments of intense emotion.
• She told jokes and found the joy of bringing a smile to someone’s face
• She adopted a flamingo on the endangered species list

Her Dad and I are so proud of her.

    What’s funny is that part of the reason I set Klutz up this year was to blog his letters everyday.  The reason for that was because I wanted to give myself a writing activity to get me in the consistent habit as exercise for writing my book.  But after a while, something magical happened, instead of focusing solely on the Klutz letters and posting them every day, I actually just started writing the book. Instead of the Klutz letters being the primary focus, they continued to serve as a exercise while keeping me connected to sitting down and writing what I have always wanted to. 
    The book itself is the very one that people will receive when doing Project eMOTION and I am so excited that there will be a first round of eyes to land on it. It’s small and simple. It isn’t done yet, but it’s rolling along.

I wanted to give an update on this final night of Klutz. I know I didn’t quite bring you along for the ride as planned, but as I have been saying lately when writing down my intentions we should always be open to “this or something better”.  I opened a door for myself and the something better very much came through.  And I am so grateful that it did.