Happy Mardi Gras

Here in Ireland, Mardi Gras (aka Shrove Tuesday) is known for being pancake Tuesday. Pancakes are suddenly the “it” thing, and every where you go, pancakes (sweet and savory) are served.

Where I’m from, however, we have King Cake and a big party. After 5 years in Ireland – I was craving king cake. So, I went online and found a recipe for a braided king cake. I started out by making the dough, layering the cinnamon sugar paste, then rolling it up, then stretching it into long tubes. From there, it was braided:

King Cake for Mardi Gras 2016! Gold, Green, & Violet icing...

It went in the oven for 35 minutes, and while it was baking, I mixed up some simple glaze of powdered sugar, a dash of water, and food coloring to make “gold”, “green”, and Violet.

King Cake for Mardi Gras 2016! Gold, Green, & Violet icing...

when it was done baking, it had risen quite a bit – and looked and smelled fabulous:

King Cake for Mardi Gras 2016! Gold, Green, & Violet icing...

Finally, when the cake was cool, I drizzled it with the colored glaze – added a piece of candy for the “prize” and wrapped it up – all set to take to work.

King Cake for Mardi Gras 2016! Gold, Green, & Violet icing...

The guys? Well, they seemed to like it. Especially Bill, who got the candy – and is king for the day.

Happy Mardi Gras, y’all! Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

PS. If you want to learn more about the history of King Cake, please go here.

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Origami Stars & Cards

Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you...#origami #stars #starrynight #coldplay #christmas #ornaments

One of my favorite times of the Holiday season is sending out Christmas cards. This year, I didn’t have time to make very many ornaments to put in them (I mailed 55 cards before Christmas), but I did a few origami stars and some wooden ornaments to put in cards I hand delivered.

Pinwheel galaxy star origamiOrigami Star ornamentsOrigami Star ornaments

My hand delivered cards to those who make my day better in all the hidden ways – the people that work behind the scenes in my office – the event planning team, the security staff, the mailroom clerks, the coffee bar staff, the cooks, and most of all, the cleaners. These folks are often forgotten by those that work here – even though they are the ones that get paid the least – and keep the place going everyday. Most were surprised at the little card/gift – and delighted to get it.

16 Christmas ornaments from wood and self adhesive paper

The best part is that they didn’t take very long to see the smiles and the returns when I gave them out on Friday. I returned to the office today – and what was sitting on my desk?

Christmas card 2015

Christmas card 2015

A little card – all set for me to make an ornament with for someone next year.

Random acts of kindness – they truly do make the world go around.

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‘Tis the Season to Give

Happy Holidays!

I Just wanted to share a couple little bits of festive fun and photos from this side of the pond – that our team at work participated in.

volunteering

a) The Giving Tree – This year’s eBay giving tree supported over 200 individuals from birth to adult to make sure they had at least one gift under the tree.

Volunteering2

b) In addition, several of us donated food and canned goods to Serve the City. On Wednesday, We taped, packed, hand wrote & decorated cards for 50 Holiday Hampers going to the needy. eBay is gift matching and donating 500 Euro to buy turkey and hams and other goodies for the boxes.

Sometimes you have to #leadbyexample because #charitybeginsathome. 7am start to deliver 50 #carebox for #servethecity #ireland #weareebay Be the #kindness you want to see in the world. #volunteer

Serve the City Holiday Hampers Packing and Delivery 2015

After the dry goods packing on Wednesday, on Saturday, December 19, starting out at 7am, 4 volunteers from Serve the City and 2 from eBay arrived bright and early to finish filling the Hampers with perishables – apples, oranges, bananas, bread, milk, butter, etc.

50 Holiday Hampers volunteering with Serve the City 12.16.2015

Serve the City Holiday Hampers Packing and Delivery 2015

Once each box was full to the max, we closed them up and loaded the cars. A quick picture (my list of 7 in hand) and Santa hat on head – and deliveries started.

Serve the City Holiday Hampers Packing and Delivery 2015

50 Holiday Hampers volunteering with Serve the City 12.16.2015

Serve the City Holiday Hampers Packing and Delivery 2015

Overall, 50 surprise hampers were delivered to those living in poverty in the Dublin Area between 9am and Noon. They were so heavy, that they took 2 people to carry the box – sometimes a block, sometimes up several flights of stairs. The Hampers were well received by all I visited – Several elderly homebound individuals (I’m so glad you came! I needed food today!), several that had fallen on hard times (How did you know?!?), and one of whom was a lady in a wheel chair with her autistic son (Thank goodness! I wondered what we were going to do for Christmas dinner!).

Serve the City package delivery

The response was overwhelming – and later, we got an email sent by phone from one of the recipients:

hi, I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for their thoughtfulness and for giving their time to organise the hamper for me. When I opened the box the first thing I saw was bread, I need bread today. Everything will get used especially the ‘goodies ‘.

Included in the box was a personal card from eBay- will you please pass on my thanks to them also.

Happy Christmas to all your volunteers.

(person’s name removed). XXX

Just goes to show – Little by little, we can make a difference. For me – this was the highlight of the season.

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