Operation "Spread a Little Sunshine"

After doing Easter cookies and birthday cookies over the last two weeks, I told my husband on Sunday that I was over doing cookies for a while.  Yeah, that lasted about a day or so.  But since I didn't have anyone specific in mind, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  Then I decided I'd just do some simple flowers - only mixed up two colors of icing - pink and yellow.  I did about 3 dozen, well it actually came out to 34 cookies and then with quality control and all, there ended up being 32 to divide up.  I'm a huge Andy Griffith Show fan and always have been.  There's an episode in which Andy sings a line out of a song that goes, "Spread a little sunshine every day.  Spread a little sunshine every day.  Help someone along life's way.  Spread a little sunshine every day."  That episode was on in the background one day while I was working on cookies to surprise a friend and it just fit.  So now, I call surprising people with cookies "spreading sunshine."

Yesterday I packed up six boxes of 5-6 cookies each and sent them all over the U.S. to various friends.  A couple went here in my home state of Alabama, one to Memphis, one to Denver, one to Florida and one to Kentucky.  Only one of those people knows to be on the look-out for them, because I knew she'd had trouble with a neighbor taking packages from her house, so I had to get her work address from her.

Just got word that the nearest one has been delivered!  She was totally surprised and was having a really bad day worrying about her son's friend who'd had a very serious car accident on his way to school this morning and was air lifted from the scene.  She said it could not have come at a better time.  (Also, good news came about the young man shortly thereafter - he is stable - has some broken bones, but overall okay).  Here's the pic she took and posted to Facebook thanking me:

Here is what she said, which brought me to tears:

"Today my heart was heavy.______ had a doctors appointment(which he received awesome news) and I learned of one of _____'s classmates having a horrific accident in which she and her brother were injured. I was in tears and looked in the window and saw I had mail. I had a small box addressed to me. I had a box of cookies ( so springy and beautiful) from a friend. I had admired her cookies for weeks. I always say it is the little things that mean the most and today it was AWESOME!!! How or why she thought of me was amazing but she did and I needed a reason to smile. In her note she stated to pay it forward and I will. Thanks to all of you who love me for being me. Thank you Beth:)"

Yes, that is a little hint of green you see in the center of the smaller flower, but that was leftover green from the birthday cookies, so I did only mix two colors for these flowers.  I also cheated doing these by using pre-made centers for them.  Seems that I can never mix up just the right amount of icing (although I came pretty close this time around) so I always make dots and flower centers with the leftovers.  Since I wasn't doing dimension with these, just an outline and flat flood, then dropping the pre-made centers on them, I knocked out these almost 3 dozen very quickly.  I actually did the yellow ones on the same morning that I mailed them out in the afternoon - just put the fan on them immediately after getting them ready.  I'll post pics and updates to this post over the next couple of days as I receive word that the surprises have arrived.

UPDATE:  Have received word that packages #3 and #4 have also arrived.  Didn't get pics of both of those, but both were very surprised.  For package #3, I just giggled to myself the other night when she commented on one of my posts on Facebook that she wished she lived closer so she could try my cookies.  All the while, she was already on the list to send some to the very next day.  She had no idea and was completely shocked when she received them today.  Looks like spreading sunshine is making me smile a lot, too! Here's the pic of package #4 that made it to Colorado:

There are actually 6 cookies in this pic. I bagged them back to back.

I'm pretty much stalking the USPS tracking page to see where the packages are in their transit.  I'm a little concerned about the one headed to Kentucky, as there has been no update on its status since it was sorted in Birmingham in the wee hours between Wednesday and Thursday.  All the others had/have detailed information for each stop along the way to the various destinations.  Wonder when I should begin to worry. 

UPDATE #2 Got word last night after posting this that package #5 arrived at the end of a very stressful day filled with doctor's appointments.  She said the timing was perfect and that she and her husband quickly gobbled them up.

Also heard today that the seemingly lost Kentucky package found its way to its destination today.  My friend said her son gave them the seal of approval, which is huge because he's not a big sweets eater!  I must have done an okay job packing these (unlike the mixer cookies) because all 3 of the packages that I got pics of seem to be intact!