🎉 There’s only one way to start 2024…

🐶🐱 Sleepover Santa. On Christmas Eve, most Christmas-celebrating children are snuggled in their beds, courting sleep to hasten Santa’s imminent arrival. Nine-year-old Ollie isn’t most children.

The Maine boy just spent his third straight Christmas Eve sleeping over at the Harvest Hills Animal Shelter. Ollie participates in his annual slumber party to raise money for the shelter, which faces mounting veterinary costs on an annual basis. By the 24th, he had already surpassed his $30,000 goal from 2022 and was progressing towards this year’s $50,000 target.

But it’s not just the money.

On Christmas Eve, Ollie showers the sheltered pets with personalized stockings brimming with treats. To those wonderful animals, Santa Claus does exist. His name is Ollie, and instead of dropping down the chimneys of the world, he sleeps right under the same roof as them.

☕️Winter’s lemonade stand. In the summer months, it’s not uncommon for incredibly kind and generous children to grace an edition of Case of the Mondays with heroic fundraising, made possible by the lemonade stand. A timeless vestige of American childhood, the lemonade stand scratches the early entrepreneurial itch and, in some cases, the charitable one too. But it’s winter, and though I would certainly still drink a cup, lemonade is unlikely to sell quite as well.

That doesn’t stop Jordan Slippi-Mensah from raising money for holiday gifts for children in his local children’s hospital. Instead of lemonade, though, Jordan opts for the seasonal favorite, hot cocoa. Though he’s only 11 years old, Jordan has been conducting his hot cocoa fundraiser since 2017, raising more than $29,000 since he first started and $4,700 in 2023.

Inspired by Jordan, his younger brother Chase started a penny war at school to raise additional funds. Thanks to his efforts and diligent coin counting and rolling by his parents, a further $3,900 was added to the Toys for Tots campaign.

Whether it’s coins or cocoa, we can learn a lot from the brothers’ earnest annual efforts to help those in need.

🎹 Dinner and a show. You never know what friendship might await on just the other side of your walls. Curiosity led one early-30s couple in Honolulu to a dear tradition with a neighbor. The couple, Lydia and Andy Pender, often heard piano music coming from the apartment next door. The beauty of the music inspired them to introduce themselves to 97-year-old Derek Peart.

Despite the six decade age gap, the neighbors formed a fast friendship. When they first met, Peart was mourning the loss of his wife. But the Penders quickly filled some of the vacancy left in his heart. What started with a few meals became a tradition: the Penders bring dinner, and Peart plays the piano for them. Dinner and a show.

For Peart, the opportunity to meet new friends and prove to himself that he retains the ability to converse intelligently with people much younger than him is thrilling. And their visible appreciation for his music provides a welcome boost of self esteem. The world of TikTok has taken notice, delighting in the music he’s now sharing with the world.

@honolululyd

Replying to @C so much love!!! For everyone wanting more- here is another dinner and a show from earlier this year, featuring more of Dere... See more

Lydia Pender recalls Derek once said, “I needed this. I need this for my spirit. I need this to keep going.”

Keep going, Derek!

🔋 The power of perspective. What started as a kidney stone for Kentucky mother Cindy Mullins became an infection, and that infection caused Mullins to become septic, and that sepsis meant Mullins would lose all four limbs.

Mullins was sedated for several days, eventually becoming alert to this startling new reality. But with both legs amputated from the knees down and both arms set to be amputated below the elbow, Mullins isn’t bemoaning her severe misfortune. And it’s her valuable and incredible perspective that we should all admire as we start a new year:

“I just said these are the cards I’ve been dealt and these are the hands I’m going to play. I’m just so happy to be alive. I get to see my kids. I get to see my family. I get to have my time with my husband.”

Whatever cards we’re dealt in 2024, let’s play them with grace and remember the important things in life.

❄️ The coolest invention ever. It may only be the beginning of winter, but before you know it, the heat of summer will arrive. I love summer, but it’s hard to imagine navigating it without a delightful little technology called air conditioning.

Is there anything worse than a hot room when you’re trying to sleep?!

On this day in 1906, engineer Willis Carrier received a US patent for the world’s first air conditioner. He invented it a few years prior, testing it and refining his system until the patent was granted. Air conditioning didn’t become popular until the 1950s, and today, we perhaps take its near omnipresence for granted. But the next time you walk into work or school in the summer branded with backpack-shaped sweat marks, remember to thank Willis Carrier for the welcome reprieve of the air-conditioned oasis.

⛄️ Shelter from the storm. On Christmas Eve 2022, a blizzard dumped snow and treacherous conditions on Buffalo, New York. Sha’Kyra Aughtry heard screams for help and spotted a freezing man from her window. There were hesitations about bringing a man - a total stranger - into her home on Christmas Eve amid a terrible storm. But Aughtry’s humanity would not allow her to leave a fellow human being in the cold.

That human being turned out to be Joey White, a developmentally disabled 64-year-old man with the mental capacity of an 11-year-old.

White’s hands were severely frostbitten, but Aughtry did all she could to nurse him back to health and to ensure he would receive urgent medical care. Ultimately, he lost nine fingers and half a thumb, but White may not have survived if not for Aughtry’s kindness and care. Fingers may have been lost, but a strong bond was gained.

Joey and Sha’Kyra still speak frequently. They call each other, and Sha’Kyra visits him in an assisted living facility, most recently going to see him on Christmas Eve, the anniversary of their first meeting. That bond is a Christmas miracle, born from the incredible humanity of a Great Samaritan.

👖 One leg at a time. We all put our pants on one leg at a time right? Nope. Not Australian man Nicholas Manning, who just set one of the stupidest world records of 2023. After six months of practice, Manning broke the world record for the fastest time to put on 10 pairs of underpants, clocking in at 13.03 seconds.

The video is not terribly impressive, but I laughed out loud halfway through when his wife or girlfriend, manning the camera, issues an anxious and hopeful “c’mon babe” of encouragement. That’s a woman who has lived through six months of her man striving relentlessly to become the underpants world champ. Captain Underpants, if you will. His failure to attain the record would no doubt mean additional months of rigorous underpants training….and there’s probably only so much of that she can take.

Thankfully, Manning emerged triumphant, to the extent you can label a man wearing ten pairs of gray briefs a “triumph.” Next time you oversleep, as you risk becoming mangled by a rapid pants’ing gone wrong, you remember the incredible poise displayed by Nicholas Manning, Captain Underpants.

🍞 A toast to the Pop-Tart. The college football bowl season has been pillaged by the transfer portal and NIL. With so much economic opportunity at stake, players opt out of playing in - let’s face it - meaningless bowl games, protecting their earning abilities in the season ahead. Really, who could blame them? Wherever the blame lies, the bowl product has suffered.

But last week, an unlikely hero saved bowl season and, dare I say, united America in the process?

That hero was the Pop-Tart mascot.

The Pop-Tarts Bowl featured a decent game between NC State and Kansas State, but the real action came courtesy of the sponsor’s mascot. Throughout the contest, the Pop-Tart appeared to be having the time of its life, dancing and joking its way to fame and adoration. But the evening’s crescendo came when it dropped through a gigantic toaster to be eaten by the winning team. You read that right.

Now, before you question the morbidity of America reveling in a once-living object being toasted and eaten, fear not.

The memes truly were exquisite.

Long live the Pop-Tart. Thanks for the memories. Can’t wait to see you next year. If you grew up in one of those households where Pop-Tarts were understandably prohibited, please take this as your sign to buy and enjoy a box guilt-free. After all, you’d be making dreams come true.

🎉 Cause for celebration. Professional athletes are often encouraged to play it cool. When notching any achievement short of a championship, they’re supposed to take it in stride. Be happy, but not too happy. Celebrate, but don’t go wild.

But only one team wins the championship each year. If that’s the only thing that can be celebrated, fans and athletes alike are in for a gloomy existence. Cleveland Browns fans in particular have mostly known only such gloom, so why shouldn’t they savor the good times? When the Browns clinched a playoff berth last week, tight end David Njoku seized the opportunity to enjoy a wholesome celebration with a young fan.

Sports, man. That’s what they’re here for. Making memories. Reveling in moments of delight.

🦅 Fly Eagles, fly. Before our holiday hiatus, we marveled at the magic of some very large men producing some very beautiful singing. Today, while things might not be going so well on the field for the Philadelphia Eagles, we have a wonderful update about the team’s second Christmas album.

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The album raised over $2.5 million for local charity organizations, which include the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center. That tally doubled the total from last year’s edition, ensuring that their holiday cheer will be spread even further this time around. Not bad at all for some of the largest and fiercest linemen in the NFL.