Christmas presents

I want to thank you for the cards and gifts this Christmas.  God bless you and thank you.

I have heard from several who told me that they did not give me a gift as in the past, because in lieu of this, they gave a goat, or 5 goats to Guatemala.  These stories make me very happy.

Here is a note from a person who has been listening to that annoying preacher talk about living the Christian life..............

Jeff—

A few weeks ago you asked for a Christmas gift.  You asked that in lieu of gifts we buy a couple of bags of groceries for a needy family.  Well….We bought two family dinners for thanksgiving.

 We sponsored two children for Christmas through church – and doubled what was requested.

We filled a Harvesters bucket at our office from donations brought to our holiday open house.

 We purged a LOT of unneeded items from our home.  Van loads went to Community Services League.

 I have a friend whose Marine son is fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan.  He has lost 8 buddies at last count, and a couple of dozen have been sent home with life altering injuries.  My friend’s son, as of this writing, is safe.  We put together a package for him and his buddies.  We asked several people to join us and write letters to him.  Our daughter told her class about it, and came home with an envelope of letters and pictures from her grade school class.  

Yesterday our office closed down for the afternoon.  Our staff printed 25 envelopes with a Christmas message.  The we took all the bonus money that we had received and divided It up between the envelopes and hit the streets.  We went to a pawn shop, a laundry mat, Aldi’s, Dollar General, Independence Power & Light, bus stops, the Salvation Army Thrift Store, and the Walmart parking lot on Blue Ridge Blvd.  We simply passed out envelopes to 25 people who looked like they could use a  little Christmas cheer.  My favorite was watching one of our staff park the car and walk in pouring rain to a man panhandling on the street corner at the exit ramp from I70 to Sterling.  She handed the man the envelope and he started crying before he even opened it.  As she walked back to the car, I was able to see him open the envelope, smile a wide toothless smile, and yell his thanks to her.  Then he picked up his stuff and left his post.  Apparently it was enough to allow him to find a dry spot to land. 

My husband has contributed to every – and I mean EVERY – request for Christmas contributions he has encountered. 

We have made it clear to our children that there will not be an abundance of gifts this year and why.  Santa will bring them, as always, three gifts (one for each of the wise men), and there will only be a couple under the tree.  My oldest gets it and is talking about caroling around our new neighborhood with the wagon to collect canned food.  That said, gifts wrapped by young hands have been appearing under the tree.  One child wrapped the others slippers that have been missing and put them under the tree.  She was just having so much fun giving and she thought there should be more gifts under the tree.  Not for her.  Just because we should give.  I can’t wait to open gifts Christmas morning to find out what I’m missing.  There are a lot of gifts for me under the tree.

Merry Christmas, Jeff.  This may be my gift to you, but it has really been a Christmas gift to me.  And I’m enjoying it so much that it may just have to continue through the year.  Blessings to you and your family.  

I hope that this story blessed you as much as it blessed me.  It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.