Christmas Family Gathering

This year we met on the Friday before Christmas.  We had all of the Cutlers, Tucker, Lyndsy and all of Annie's family but Emmi, Abby and Antonio.  They would be arriving on Monday.  We had a ham and turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

After dinner we gathered in the front room and Neal asked each family to report on what service they did with the $200 we had given each family this year.  The decision was made to not exchange presents but instead do a service for someone else.  Maren and Greg's family had a really special experience.  Maren knew of a nurse at work who is a single mom with a little family.  Working and also going to school.  Maren felt like she could really use some help so Maren put the $200 in a card and secretly slipped the envelope with the money into the nurses back pack.  The night of our family gathering, Maren got a text from her supervisor.  This young mother had text the supervisor about how incredible it was to find the money in her backpack and how much she needed it and was so grateful for it.  She had no idea where it came from.

Lynda Ann's family bought Christmas for Foster Kids of Utah.  They concentrated on the teenagers because it seems that the little people always get tons of toys and the teens kind of get forgotten.  A great program to help during this time of the year.

Tucker said he took a name off an Angel Tree.  He said it was a boy that needed clothes and shoes.  He mentioned that it was fun to be able to pick stuff out for a little boy and kind of a challenge because he is so used to shopping for girls, not boys.  

Lyndsy said that she used part of her $200 to buy Christmas presents for her two kids and then some of it to make Christmas presents for her friends kids.  

Neal and I talked to our bishopric and found out we have some families in our ward that are really struggling financially so we bought Walmart gift cards with our money and gave them to the Bishopric to distribute as they saw the need.  

All of the kids said it was a great experience and wanted to do it again next year rather than exchange presents to each other.  I loved that our kids felt that way.  I hope that this will be a tradition each year from now on.  There is something extra special about being able to give and serve others during this time of the year.  My mother was a great example of giving no matter how little you had yourself.  She said you can always find someone who is in worse circumstances than you and you can always find something to share.  

Thank you all for participating in this project.  We love you all and hope that it helped each one of you feel the true meaning of Christmas by concentrating on others in need.