We spent Christmas Eve with my family and after enjoying a savory soup dinner my mother presented the family with 2 old and smelly cardboard boxes full of family photographs. Our job was to each find 1-2 photos and create an ornament with it. Above is Bryn's work in progress of me as a baby with our cat Ty.
I don't think my mother anticipated that we would spend so much time looking through the photos. Eventually, I walked away with two stuffed manila envelopes and promised all that they would be scanned. I don't think I will ever be able to have another Christmas tree that isn't covered in family memories. I love the heart ornament of my parents circa 1970s.
The second surprise of the evening was when at 8:30p.m. we were divided into two groups given a list of names and an armful of gifts and told to deliver them. My mother has always been keen to those in need and her current calling at church makes her very aware of so many in sad times. All my brothers and I have been gone from Salem for so long that we knew none of these people and they don't know us. Noah, Paul and I delivered all the gifts personally with a very "Merry Christmas" to very bewildered recipients mostly in their pajamas with looks of "who are these crazy people?" The other car did ding and dash with most of their gifts and made their escape via Speedy McSean.
Our last delivery of the evening was to an elderly woman in a nursing home with asthma. She is so thirsty all the time and craves Pepsi so that is was we brought. She was thankful for her late evening visit on Christmas Eve and still has no idea who we were or who told us what she wanted. Another confirmation to how simple Christmas really should be
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