The Power of Paying it Forward This Holiday Season

Happy Christmas Eve my friends!! I can’t believe tomorrow is Christmas!!! 2019 REALLY did FLY by!!! So with just a week and a half left of the holiday season and 2019, I thought this would be the perfect time to team up with Frost Bank to share how the power of paying it forward this holiday season can impact our communities and how we can jump start 2020 with kindness!!!

And since the summer of 2018, Frost has been on a mission to spread optimism through their Opt for Optimism initiative. After all, research has shown that an optimistic mindset can be beneficial to many different areas of your life, including physical, emotional and financial health.

For example, it can improve your overall health, lower stress, improve relationships, extend our lives and most of all, MAKE US HAPPY!!!

So one way DeAndre and I always pay it forward during the holiday season is through “adopting a child” or family! And if you haven’t done that before, the way it works is you’re given a list with the child’s (or family’s) Christmas wishes and you can chose to buy 1, 2 or all 3 (there’s usually 3 options) of the person’s Christmas gift options! And you can usually “adopt children” or family’s through your local church, gym, mall, job etc! There are tons of places that participate in this sort of thing!

So this year, we chose to adopt a family through DeAndre’s team’s organization!!! It’s seriously one of my FAVORITE things to do during the holidays and we ended up getting a boy, girl and their mother! And of course we wanted to get everything on their lists, so you can see some of the gifts below, but not pictured is the HUGE Barbie Dream House we got for the little girl and the boy’s Nintendo 3DS! Those came in last minute before we had to turn in the gifts, so I wasn’t able to snag a photo of those, but I am BEYOND grateful that we we’re able to bless this family with all of their Christmas wishes!!! After all, if it weren’t for the Texans organization and all the players, Lady Texans and staff, these families sadly wouldn’t be able to have a Christmas this year!

So it really means a lot to us that we’re able to help and make their holidays a little brighter!!!!

And this holiday season since I’ve teamed up with Frost, they were generous enough to gift me a $100 Frost It Forward gift card to purchase some of these gifts you see below!!!

That is TRULY so generous and I’m forever grateful!!

But they also gifted me FIVE $10 Frost It Forward gift cards to empower others to share acts of kindness too!! Because random acts of kindness are catalysts for optimism!! So the first two we’re given to my photographer and her assistant! We had just finished shooting some outfits, I paid her the fees, but then I also pulled out one of the cards and told her to enjoy a treat on me!! And did the same for her assistant!!.. It’s the little things that count!!

The following day I was in the Starbucks line getting my usual, a tall caramel apple spice 🙂 and I remembered I had the Frost It Forward cards in my wallet! … So I decided to pay for the person behind me!!.. Is it weird that I drove off reallllllyyy slowly to see if they smiled when the barista told them I had already paid? haha! It is just SO rewarding to me to give!!

The last two $10 cards I actually plan to give this week! I wanted to spread it out a bit and not give them to the first people I saw… even though I really wanted too! haha! .. But rather, to people who I really felt in my heart would appreciate it!.. So stay tuned for who gets the last two!!

And if you’re looking for ways you can “Frost It Forward“, here’s just a few fun, quick little ways:

-Pay for person’s coffee behind you

-Bring someone flowers

-Purchase someone’s meal when you’re out at lunch/dinner with them

-Bag groceries for the person behind you in line

-Drop off clothing for someone in need

etc! The list truly goes on!!! And their is NO act TOO SMALL!!!!

So this holiday season and going into 2020, I encourage you to surprise a friend or stranger with a random act of kindness! You can learn more about Frost’s Opt For Optimism and how you can get involved here.

Happy Holidays my friends!!! I’ll see you in 2020!!!