Volunteer Early and Often

When our family was grown and beginning to go out on their own into the world, Christmas Day was not always a convenient time for everyone to be together. Our last to get married, Rob, and our youngest son, Don, would often be the only two home and we would hold off our family celebration until the rest could join us a few days later.

One year Rob suggested we use the day to reach out to others by going to one of the places in our area that serve meals to the homeless and less fortunate on Christmas Day. I thought it was a great idea and just after Thanksgiving that year began to make phone calls to various organizations to volunteer the four of us for Christmas Day.

One by one I checked off the names on my list. Each response was, "We appreciate you volunteering but we have all the volunteers we can handle. You need to call much earlier in the year if you want to help out on Christmas Day."

I was stunned. I had never heard of any volunteer organizations turning away people who were willing to, well, volunteer. Instead of serving a meal to the homeless that year, we gathered together people we knew who did not have family close by or had no family to share their Christmas. It was a wonderful time of fellowship for all of us.

I guess the moral of the story is if you want to serve the homeless a meal choose a time when the help is truly needed. Obviously at the holidays everyone wants to help. And our alternative at Christmas is still a great idea for bringing lonely folk together.

Christmas Giving

Today, the day after so many families have a Thanksgiving feast, is an appropriate time to share from our plenty with those who have less.

Paul wrote during his journey to Jerusalem, in his third missionary trip that “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35

A catastrophe hit almost 20 years ago, in the county where my family lives, and homes were destroyed and people died in mud slides. A volunteer set up a command post in a local church, and she graciously coordinated help efforts. This volunteer group of Christians continues to work year round to help people in the area in need. All money donated goes directly to help people; there is only one paid staff member. Churches and volunteers do all the rest; mailings, phone calls, delivering food and Christmas celebration items, from Christmas trees and poinsettias to gifts.

Each year my husband and I contribute to this group, before Thanksgiving, and every year has its challenges, including this year’s economic slump. Many people that volunteer with this local group were helped in a previous year. There is adopt a family, gifts and food to home bound seniors, and huge holiday feasts for all who want to take part. Small loans and gifts are offered to pay rent or utilities, or to fix the family car so the owner can get to their place of work.

We each do a small part, and taken together, it adds up to a huge amount of giving. We give of our gifts that God has freely bestowed upon us, and find joy in doing this. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Holiday Food Drive

Holiday Food Drive

Helping Hands does exactly what its name suggests. This local organization has served the community of Rockwall (the town where we live) for nearly ____ years, providing food and clothing for needy families. I’ve seen those kinds of situations up close and personal on more than one occasion, so I realize the importance of supporting local groups.

My home church, Lake Pointe Church, sponsors a food drive every year in late November and early December—to help provide families with what they need for the holidays and all year long. All food donated—one week they collect rice and beans, another they ask for peanut butter and pasta, etc.—goes directly to local families through Helping Hands.

Our family loves to get the shopping list every year and do what we can to help those in need.

Give Unto Others

my faithful readers!

Do you participate in holiday food drives? Typically my family either gives to a food collection or we serve a meal to the homeless at a shelter. Either way, the joy comes from giving -- it really is more blessed to give than to receive.

by Brenda Nixon
http://www.brendanixon.com/

Mrs. Christmas

If anyone could be labeled "Mrs. Christmas," it would have been my mother. I think I've posted often of things connected with her at Christmas--her early shopping for one and her cherry cheesecake tarts. Mom had a way of stretching Christmas out especially when it came to decorating. She would start with the mantel and often unrolled a large piece of cotton swabbing (this was before they made it into all those nice little balls) across the top of it to make it look like snow. Then she'd add little houses or angels or miniature trees. It was never the same way two years in a row.

On the front door that opened directly into our living room and was rarely used, she would tape all the Christmas cards. As I grew older, that became my job. One that I was very proud to do.

Decorating the tree was one of the last things to do since growing up, we always had a live tree. There were some ornaments that Mom absolutely cherished and those were always hung by her and high enough in the tree not to be knocked down by over-zealous children reaching for gifts. I don't remember when she bought them, but I do remember the box of a dozen colored glass ornaments in the shape of teapots. Each was a shiny color, red, blue, green, gold, and had a little sprig of flowers or Christmas greenery painted on the front. It sticks in my mind that those were her favorites. Maybe because they were so delicate or maybe because we were never allowed to hang those until we were grownups.

Some years after I was married, Mom decided to sort through her old ornaments and get rid of those that were tarnished. There were only two little teapots left. For the record, I do not remember breaking any. It must have been my brother. (How's that for sibling rivalry?) The teapots were tarnished pretty badly. One was gold and the other green.

Today, you cannot tell the color of either teapot. They have taken on a reddish-brown patina but they still look as delicate as ever. They are placed each year in the center of my dining room hutch where no one can touch them. They are there just for me. A reminder of Mom and how much she loved Christmas and sharing it with her family.

Favorite Decorations

Our topic is favorite Christmas decorations and I choose “the sum total of sparkles, lights, color, and the smell of pine boughs.”

Holiday towels with snowmen on them, decorative stockings hung in unexpected places, 15 wooden nutcrackers marching across our fireplace mantle, our door wreath of gold jingle bells, two nativity sets, and the star of the show: the tree.

Our tree usually reaches to the ceiling and is always topped with an angel in a white gown, who holds a candle-appearing miniature light, and the tree branches are weighed down with an incredible assortment of ornaments.

Like me, do you exclaim “My sister gave us this ornament” and “You made this one”? Some ornaments were made of dough in the 1970s and painted with model car enamel paints and include Mrs. Santa with cotton balls for her hair, the worm Ouroboros, and a red apple with a cute caterpillar smiling at us.

Lots of cat, bird and angel ornaments and two Christmas spider ornaments with a legend behind them. The mysterious Christmas pickle ornament, put in a tucked away spot, and our new this year LED Christmas lights. I chose the small round bulbs for the LED lights, for a change of pace.

So, I admit that my favorite decoration is “all of the above.”

What is your own favorite or first decoration you display? I would enjoy reading your comment here.

Favorite Decoration

Favorite Decoration

Many years ago, when Bret and I were newlyweds, his maternal grandmother—affectionately known as Mama Madge—gave us a beautiful snow globe with a music box base. This gift represented to me that I had reached adulthood, started a new family with my husband, begun my own traditions in my own home. We still have that globe. Nope, even as klutzy as I can be, I haven’t broken it yet. (Knock on wood.) And since Mama Madge went to be with the Lord several years ago, the gift has taken on even more meaning.

I’m also supposed to tell you that—hands down—my husband’s favorite decoration that belongs to his mom is a set of four pillows that spell out N-O-E-L. He didn’t like them for their beauty or softness to cradle his head while he watched TV. No, he liked to irritate his mom by rearranging them to spell L-E-O-N or L-O-N-E or E-L-N-O.