This weekend, a few events changed my perspective about Christmas - even just a little bit. Friday night I had the opportunity to go to the Christmas party that my parents host ("Party with a Purpose"). They've been attending or hosting the party for almost 20 years and this was the first time I was actually able to go. The idea of the party is that they are able to adopt several families through the Christmas Bureau and then they have a party and everyone spends time shopping for the families, plus a little socializing and drinks after. My mom, knowing the way to my heart, gave my friend Heather and I a set of three year old twins to shop for with special needs. Do you know how hard it is for a pediatric therapist to shop for a three year old in 45 minutes? Hard. But we did it.
After we got back we wrapped all the presents (which is actually very funny, men aren't really the best present wrappers, but they give it their best effort and their most positive attitude. If there's anything that puts you in the Christmas spirit, it's people doing things they hate/are very bad it for the good of someone else. While smiling.)
I don't see my parents in situations like this very often. They both spoke and had a long list of people to thank - people who donated, people who catered, people who shopped extra, etc. The room was filled with smiles by the time they were through - tons of people giving what they had (time, money, and skills) to help families who needed it. Most of all, to keep the magic in Christmas for kids. I've learned over the last few years that if I need reminded of some of the positive things about Christmas, go hang out with some kids. My parents always made sure my sister and I had MORE than enough and that Christmas was a very magical time of year for us. To hear them talking about moving all the magic they gave my sister and I as kids to other families who could use some extra magic this time of year really made me feel good - definitely something that I want to emulate in my own life.
Yesterday, I spent the day at my neighbors house baking cinnamon rolls as a fundraiser for a family who is near and dear to my heart. I spent countless hours at the Savages growing up - playing in the treehouse or on the trampoline, making and frosting cookies, and playing Mario Kart in the basement for hours. Once Luke was born, we played a lot of Wii games with him, trains, hide and seek, and legos. I don't make it over there as much anymore, but some things never change. Turns out I'm still just as messy making Christmas treats at 23 as I was when I was 10. 60 dozen cinnamon rolls, several tired bakers, and a LOT of powdered sugar later, I was ready with 11 dozen to come back to Omaha today.
Tonight, I had the opportunity to pull off a Christmas surprise for said cinnamon roll family. My main job was transportation of rolls and presents to Omaha, as they were all put together by the "Luke Squad". They were beautifully wrapped and the tags looked like something that came directly from the North Pole.Then I was meeting Santa in our church parking lot. I was so nervous for this. I wanted everything to be perfect. I met Santa and him and Mrs. Clause rode with me to the house (you can imagine the stares we got on the highway). Although our visit was VERY fast and chaotic, I wish I could relive it over and over again. I wish I could have captured the joy in those kids' eyes when they saw Santa in their home, opened their presents, and just took in the environment around them. I thought about how all this was put together because one family suffered immeasurable hurt at the loss of their own child, and the desire to help others in a similar situation was what they wanted to do for this Christmas season without him.
I did not cry during delivery tonight like I thought I would, until I heard Brent read the snow globe that Kim sent for them - it had Luke's verse printed on it, and I don't know the last time I heard it out loud. It may have been at his funeral.To hear it read by people that I love, for people that I love, in memory of someone I loved, was really special. Luke made his presence pretty known tonight - especially with a Lightning Mcqueen toy.
Today, I realized, that for me, Christmas is never going to be snow on the ground, or presents, or certain music. I will probably never like peppermint flavored anything, wearing 10 layers, or trying to find things to buy for every single person I love. I will never like so few hours of daylight and what feels like months and months of nonstop gloomy weather. This weekend I realized that the magic in Christmas for me is in the eyes of kids, flour all over my clothes, and people with hearts bigger than their kitchen. Magic is less present for me than it use to be in big events anymore, like Christmas morning. I found the Christmas magic this weekend by trying to get through Wal-Mart to shop as fast as I could without accidentally taking someone out with the cart. I love trying to wrap dozens of packages as quickly as I can. I love surprising people I love and giving them the things that they deserve, but that only 'magic' can bring them. I love seeing the people I love excited, and I love when people who don't know each other team up to make someone else's day. I may always be a fourth of July kind of a girl, but this weekend definitely reminded me that Christmas is it's own kind of special.
