This year I had someone ask me to tell them about the nicest thing I have ever done for somebody else. I began to feel ashamed as my mind went blank. I've never helped an old lady cross a busy street. I've never organized a fund raiser for a family in need. I've never given up my seat on an over-booked plane so that somebody else could make it home before me. I've never paid for a stranger's meal. Now, I know i'm not an awful human being. I know that I contribute to the goodness of society at least occasionally in small and simple ways... but during the moment of that conversation I honestly couldn't think of any one big great story to share with him - and certainly not one that could even begin to compare to his significant acts of generous service he had done for others over the course of his life. I felt disappointed in myself.
It is a constant goal of mine to be more charitable. To continue to serve others in the small and simple everyday ways while also really looking for opportunities to make a more significant impact in the lives of others around me, whether I know them well or not. Not for the recognition or the ability to tell a good story or to one-up someone else, but for the peaceful feeling that comes from doing good. For the knowledge that I am treating others as the Savior would.
ANYWAY... I have finally identified probably one of the nicest things I do for others. And it happens every year at Christmastime. I don't share this with y'all to toot my own horn, but rather to let you know about one of my favorite Christmas traditions that brings me so much happiness every year. When I was a young teenager, my family heard about the Forgotten Children's Fund from a friend. It is an organization that puts together Christmas morning packages for less fortunate families. We volunteered, got hooked, and we haven't missed a year since.
Every year they find a huge warehouse to rent, and then the volunteers and the goods come rooooollin' in. This is my favorite part. There are SO many toys. And not just lame little toys. Awesome nerf guns and bracelet making kits and remote control cars that I would have loved to get for Christmas as a kid. We are assigned a family and are given their general info: age, gender, coat size, occasionally something they really like to do. We each choose one family member to focus on, then get to work on picking out gifts. Every member of the family gets their own stocking, books, toys, a jacket, and more. It is incredible. And its so much fun shopping through the gifts, picking out what you think your little boy or girl would like, and then wrapping it all up. Every year as I pick out the cutest wrapping papers and write names on the gifts, I try to think about the moment that these gifts will be opened. I picture the faces of the kids who didn't expect to get much, if anything at all, for Christmas this year. I think of the sweet feelings relief and joy the parents have when gifts are given to their children who would have otherwise gone without. I don't buy the gifts. I don't deliver the gifts. I never even meet the families i'm making Christmas for. But still. This is the highlight of my Christmas season as I take a few hours to turn the focus from my own life to the lives of others.
We have been going to do this for probably 7-8 years, but I only have pictures from the last four years. We always get the same token pictures: with the wrapped presents for our assigned family, with the rows and rows of black trash bags filled with gifts Santa will deliver, and don't forget to pose with the many bikes that will very soon be wheeled into the lives of excited little kiddos.
2009
2010
Attending college away from home doesn't stop this tradition from living on. For the last four years, we have gone straight from the SeaTac airport to the Forgotten Children's warehouse.
2011
2012
2013
Diane is here in Seattle so she joined us this year! Rob stayed home with baby so that she could have the experience :) It didn't take us long to convince her that this is one of the best/coolest/funnest things we do all year.
What would I do without another sister to make funny faces with me? :)
Diane is making the face that the little girl who gets this bike will make on Christmas morning :)
And then this happened.
And this. Dad has fun with video.
Christmas sweaters and coming home and goofing around with dad.
'Tis the season!
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