Beautiful Gift

 The week before Christmas Break, we sat down for a family meeting to ask what everyone thought we could do to have a Meaningful Christmas.  True to form, they wanted free-time and no chores, exercising, or expected reading.  We still did the tradition of Good Deeds to fill the Manger in preparation for Jesus' birth, as well as a 12-days of Christmas to a family Randy got to choose after winning our Ugly Sweater Cookie Contest, but we wanted more.  The kids all said they love doing our Secret Sibling, and each had written out their predictions of who had whom. 

*Side note about predictions: For the past few years, I've wrapped each child's gifts in a different wrapping paper.  Christmas morning, I'd hand out gifts to each, easily grabbing them from under the tree.  This year I decided to switch it up and surprise them.  I still had only four wrapping papers, but it was the bow color on each gift that was the indicator.  It was super fun to surprise them because each had a gift that was identifiable.  I knew which gifts those were, so I purposely chose gifts in a different wrapping paper than the ones they'd identifies as their own, and gave those out first.  It was just fun to see their confusion when they thought they were 100% correct.  They had been correct about those gifts, absolutely, but not about the wrapping paper.  It was just fun.

So, as we added more and more things that we love about Christmas to our whiteboard, Randy got the idea that he wanted to do something as a family that would impact those that may not have the luxury of adding as many activities and traditions: the homeless.  He got on and signed us up as volunteers to help at the Union Gospel Mission for any time, and job during the Christmas break.  10-minutes later, they called asking if we'd be able to wash dishes on Christmas Eve.  Because the space is so small, they want to minimize contact, so our family of six would be perfect if we could.  All of the kids were super excited which brought joy to my heart.

We weren't as busy as we thought we would be.  I remember doing dishes in a room similar to this in Elementary school, and that was non-stop FUN!  We had times where we were just looking for things to do.  You better believe I enjoyed organizing their shelves!!  We cleaned and polished everything in our down-time, leaving it cleaner than we found it, even though they do a great job to keep it nice.

The one thing I could say that we all wished could have been different was the lack of interaction we had with those we were serving.  They had other volunteers that would clean the tables for them, so we didn't get to see the faces of those we wanted to wish a Merry Christmas to.  It was still an amazing experience, one that I want to do again soon, but it would have made everything just a bit more special to be able to speak to and smile at those that may feel a bit of sadness to be away from those they love most.

Our personalized wreath.

My token Christmas picture

Secret Sibling gifts.  

Brennon had Shelby, Shelby had Tyson, Keilie had Brennon, and Tyson had Keilie.

While singing Christmas songs around the piano, my favorite thing about Christmas and the one thing that can hurt my feelings if everyone doesn't fully participate in (as happened this year), Shelby said, "I could bring down Caden's guitar and play Away in a Manger!"  I didn't know she knew how to play it!!  She was a little embarrassed because it had been a while since she'd tried it, but I loved her courage and excitement to play it for me, to give me that gift. 

Randy asked her to teach him how to play it.  They worked together to tune up the guitar and then Shelby sat next to him, instructing and helping him when needed.  21 years ago, a scene much like this one started our love story when Randy asked me to teach him how to play Joseph Smith's First Prayer on the piano.  The rest is history!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2020!!!