To top off my year of adventures I decided in October to do 17 random acts of kindness in gratitude for being able to celebrate my retirement in such a fun, spoiled, all-about-me fashion. There were two rules: I had to complete them by the end of the year and the opportunities to help/be kind had to present themselves to me randomly.

The random act the longest in the making (four years) was donating my hair. I chose The Wig Fund because it has a special fund exclusively for gray hair. I was an outrageous tipper for three months tipping more than the value of my meal as often as possible. Sometimes I gave the tip face to face and sometimes I left it as a surprise. What turned out to be a funny random act was my decision to drop $20 into each Salvation Army bell ringer’s bucket that I passed. Those suckers are everywhere in December I tell ya. I had the chance to be a Secret Santa to a friend of Mother’s and also to a friend of Cyd’s. I bought wreathes for Arlington Cemetery, paid a stranger’s electric bill, bought a pair of shoes for a nine year old girl, donated jewelry I no longer enjoyed to a cancer charity, bought a couple Thanksgiving dinners for families in need, did a few unexpected favors for friends, and so on and so forth to equal 17.

This was a perfect way to end this special year!