What we did on Christmas Eve

I've been visiting at my sisters for a few days over Christmas.
Today is Christmas Eve. Well, it's actually midnight turning to Christmas.

And usually at this time, I'd be at Midnight mass, But this year
I am writing this blog entry...

To make a long story short...

Some weeks ago, My sister was prompted to put the kids names into a raffle
at a local business. The prize was a HUGE, and I am talking
so-HUGE- a -6 -foot -tall -strong- man -could- barely- pick- it -up,
Sack of toys and games from Santa.

(One of the kids won the prize. My sister knew they had won, but was afraid
they did not need or have room for any more toys!)

The sack was delivered in a mysterious manner.

When the kids (they are 4,3 and 1) went outside to put reindeer feed out so Santa could
find the house ... much to their surprise, there was this
MEGA sack of presents on the front walk for them.

There was a note on the package from Santa, asking the kids
if they could help Santa find some kids who didn't get to
ask him what they wanted for Christmas, and to help him deliver
these presents.

"Great Idea!" They shouted!

The oldest was chanting... "Let's get the pack, back on track"
"Let's get the pack, back on track"
over and over, like a cheerleader.

Perhaps this enthusiasm was fuled by an epidsode of Winnie the Pooh
and Tigger too when Santa has lost his magic sack and they helped
to get it back to him. Luckily they had watched that abuot 10 times
in teh last month, and last time,just this afternoon!

None of us could believe how much stuff was in the sack.

The kids got to go through everything in the sack and pick
one thing out for themselves.

My sister almost flipped at how much stuff there was.
She said we would try to find some
kids who would need these toys after Christmas.

But something made her look up an orphanage she heard about.

She called them on the phone, and found out they had not
had that many toy donations this year. They said they would
still be tehre at 7:30 pm so we could drop off two bags of gifts.

We bundled up the kids in their pajamas. And put them in their Santa's Hats
and we went to deliver the gifts. "We have to help save Christmas!" they shouted.

I am not making any of this up.

Of course the kiddies who are 4,3 and 1 had fallen asleep by the time
we arrived. When my sister delivered the "bags" the staff could
not believe it, they were expecting grocery bags, not HUGE Construction
waste bags (bigger than lawn and leaf bags).

The shelter was so happy to get the packages, and had a way to distribute
everything, even if it was not seemily age appropriate. Some kids are developmentally
delayed and others are older.

We decided not to go to church tonight. We thought this was better than Church.

===

there is also a back story:

(The longer form of the story is that the owner of the business
has two children and in the last month one had an extremely
unfortunate, stupid, and irreparable run in with the law and
life lessons and is now in jail, having been drunk driving
a car, which got into an accident that killed his best friend.
As a minor he and his friends were sold liquor by a store illegally (the
store did not check IDs, and the kids drove and got into the accident.
The other child of the business owner, a girl, learned that she was
7 months pregnant, and they had NOTHING ready for her. My sister
knowing the expense and stress of the other situation, let alone
the 'surprise' pregnancy, helped to gather a truckload of stuff
that would be needed for the new baby. All was second hand from
people she knew. It's possible winning the sack was rigged to repay
her kindness, but even if it wasn't (there wern't a lot of entries
and they had 3 names in the pool!) the moral of the story is it
pays to pay it forward 10x over.) I ask for your prayers for
this family and everyone involved at the orphanage, which is a
housing facility for children who have not been able to participate
in the foster care program due to behavioural problems.

Wishing everyone,love, light and inspiration, on Christmas and always.

And for the record...

One of those kiddies is asleep with me on my home page.

He's the one trying to get Santa's Pack back on track. He's 4 now.

Love and light you.