Christmas Gift Away

 "The Christian family is thus called upon to offer everyone a witness of generous and disinterested dedication to social matters through a "preferential option" for the poor and disadvantaged. Therefore, advancing in its following of the Lord by special love for all the poor, it must have special concern for the hungry, the poor, the old, the sick, drug victims and those who have no family."  The family is thus, the place of origin and the most effective means for humanizing and personalizing society."

Mission family - changing the world lead us to this idea.
For Christmas day we had a specific gift away budget.  We set aside a certain amount of money that we wanted to give away that day.  This is the big gift away idea we did on Christmas.  On Christmas day we packed bags of goodies from the dollar store.  I went and bought the items this year by myself because kids + dollar tree = wild-whiny-wanting children.  We had the kids pack the bags.  In the bags we had bottled waters, different kinds of snacks, hygiene items and we added to each bag something to keep each person warm.  We collected all of our extra blankets, scarves, gloves and hats and when we were coming up to each person I would add a warm object to their bag that I thought they may need by looking at them.  We also had the idea because it was so cold to get hot chocolates to pass out.  Everyone loved this!  We were able to bless many with these little gifts and they were so appreciative.  Next time we may just go downtown on a cold day and just do hot chocolates.  I really think they just loved being thought of.  Each person we stopped to bless with a gift the kids would sing a couple Christmas carols to each of them.  This was awesome!  The smiles on the faces of these men and women were so beautiful.  To love them was such a blessing for our family.  We met one man by the name of Richard that we actually gave a ride to the homeless shelter.  He became homeless three years ago after being in a bad car accident.  This man was in so much pain with a broken back and neck that had not been treated or healed properly.   We found him walking around downtown trying to make his way to the homeless shelter.  We noticed how slowly he was moving and how much pain he was in from a distance.  We got him to the shelter in time to get a warm place for the night!  He was so thankful!  He was from Florida and has no family left.  It is hard to believe when you have so many loving family and friends around that there are people out there who have no one.