a post from christmas past
christmas pretty much sucked last year. working retail ruined it for me. this year will be different though. on one end, i'm not working during the break and will be able to enjoy it more. on the other end, my spiritual dynamics have changed quite a bit. anyways, here's a post i made last year about the christmas the year before...
i needed a little break from paper writing, so i went to our ward's fhe tonight. the bishop told a little story and then said that we need to think about giving jesus a present. what are we going to give him? not an ipod, he says.
i'm sure most in the room were thinking "ooh, i'll give him a broken heart and a contrite spirit" "i'll give him my prayers" "i'll give him more of my faith" "i'll give him 20 minutes of scripture reading"
i think jesus would almost rather have an ipod, but i'm not sure what to give him this year.
last year i gave jesus harry potter and captain underpants. i've never read captain underpants, but one of my cousins loved it, so i thought jesus would appreciate it too.
not to sound braggish, but last christmas eve i met up with one of my old roommates for some breakfast at the village inn. yeah... i know... why would i brag about that. lots of people do that. i'm not done with the story stupid.
after breakfast, i went over to barnes and noble to window shop ( i usually order my books through amazon). in the center of the store there was a little tree with ornaments labeled "boy, age 14" "girl, age 8" "girl, age 4" etc... these all represented under-priveledged kids who didn't have much. grab an ornament, pick out a book, pay at the register, kid gets a brand new book for christmas... not some crappy, beat up hand me down.
girl, age 12 got harry potter, books 1, 2, and 3. boy, age seven got the captain underpants collection.
"inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
this was by far, the highlight of my christmas.
i wanna find something similar to do this year, or something even more, but i'm not sure what to do. any ideas?
Do the same thing. They have those trees all over the place. Put all your change into those red buckets that they have outside stores. Little things can make a big difference.
ReplyDeleteProvo has a program called sub for santa... you can sponsor a child whos parent's aren't able to provide christmas for them. Since it requires providing a whole christmas (several presents)for the child, some people i've known have chosen to go into it with friend or two. you'll get a list from the parents all about the child... their sizes, interest, wanted toys and books, ect... and then you can go shop for and wrap the presents and then deliver them to the parents. It is nice cus you get to meet with the parents and learn about them and their circumstances and you may even get to meet the child (but you can't tell them you're santa : )) plus, the parents have to take classes on making low-cost Christmas gifts and budgeting. so they hopefully won't need the program the next year.
ReplyDeletei think it is a good program and sounds sort of like what you did last year.
Provo sub for santa hotline: 356-6300.