Ok guys, here’s a little story to inspire you with your Canapé Queen Christmas Challenge! 🙂
A couple of years ago, Alex and I moved into a new flat in London and as many people, didn’t really know our neighbours. We decided to do the cheesy thing and post a little bag of Xmas treats (chocolate fudge bites) into everyone’s postbox with a tag saying ‘Wishing you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year, With blessings, Kat & Alex (Flat 8)’
Now this I thought was the perfect plan as we hadn’t worked out many people’s names yet, just had awkward encounters in the hallway (you know the type!).
Over the next couple of days, we had a few return Xmas cards, which was great because now we knew their names! Some stopped in the hallway to say thank you, which led to longer conversations that were much less awkward and tended to start around the theme of food! (Always good!) My favourite was the return card to ‘Matt & Alex’, which I hope was just a reflection of my poor hand writing rather than because I look like a man! Ha!
However the main reason I want to encourage you to do something similar is that a few months later, a danish lady who lived in the block with her young family knocked on our door at around 9am one Sunday morning. She looked pretty worse for ware and it transpired that one of her sons had been taken to hospital the previous night due to an epileptic fit. She had come to us as she was worried that with her husband travelling in the proceeding week it might happen again and she asked us if we could look after her other son if it did.
While thankfully the situation never transpired for us to need to help in this capacity, it made me realise just how many people do not have close communities and support networks around them. The fact that we had probably not exchanged more than a few words beyond ‘Thanks, for the kick-ass brownies’ and that she came to us to take care of her son in a time of need still astounds me and has encouraged me that even the smallest gestures of kindness and community are worth something.
We are now really blessed to have fantastic relationships with our neighbours and MY CHALLENGE TO YOU is to capitalise on this Christmas goodwill and use it to kick start getting to know those in your local vicinity. Whether it is your physical neighbours or other mums at playgroup or colleagues at work, I dare you to gift them with a little Christmas joy in the next couple of weeks and I look forward to hearing you make your own stories about the communities you build. #spreadjoy #knowyourneighbours
PS – My kick-ass brownie recipe is here (link) – full credit goes to Mama Tait!
Canapé Queen 