Several weeks before Christmas we started trying to decide what everyone wanted to do for Christmas Eve. We came up with a lot of ideas, but one that stuck was to deliver Christmas presents that had been collected by a woman in Jenni's ward to a family in need. We weren't supposed to buy the presents, she just needed some families to deliver what she had already gathered. A few days before Jenni was given all that had been collected and the name of the woman and her children. There were 4 children. We were surprised to see that there were only a couple gifts for the three older children and nothing for the 3 year old. Also, there were none of the "needs" that had been asked for, only a couple of the "wants". Grandma and Jenni decided we needed to get some more information and fill in the gaps. They came to our house on a Saturday morning so we could go shopping to get more. Chris ended up calling the woman because she only spoke Spanish. He found that she really did have quite a few needs that would go unmet unless we were able to help a little more. Her kids needed clothes and snow boots badly. We also found out that she and her children were here from Mexico because her oldest daughter has a tumor that grows constantly on the side of her face and they were here in the United States receiving medical care at Primary Children's. The daughter will turn 18 next October and will no longer be able to receive care there, so they will return to Mexico at that time. They have no family here. They are all in Mexico.
It was a day that we will remember forever. We took our kids to Jenni's so they could play with the cousins while Grandma, Jenni and I went shopping. We shopped the entire day. It was so awesome. We found clothes, snow boots, hats, and gloves for each of them including the mom. We also made sure the 3 year old girl had some fun presents. It filled our trunk and helped remind us all day of what Christmas is really all about. We dropped it all off at Grandma's and planned to return at 3pm on Christmas Eve to wrap it all and deliver it to the family.
On Christmas Eve we had a huge wrapping party. Everyone helped separate it into piles depending on who it was for and we got it all wrapped. It was humbling to see the huge pile of presents and know the difference it would hopefully make for this family. We left about 4:30 to drive to Ogden to deliver it. The cute mom was sooo grateful and thanked us many times. We got to meet the oldest daughter, but the youngest three were in the bathtub. The mom said, in spanish with Chris interpreting, that her kids would be sooo excited when they got out of the tub and saw all the presents under the Christmas tree. We visited with her for a while. Kacey had brought a Book of Mormon to give to her. She told us that she was a member of the Church but had not been active for awhile. She was the only one who had been baptized in her family. I know that it left a lasting impression on every one of us. It felt so great to be able to help even just a little. It truly was a Christmas miracle...not only for that family but for each of us as I know we more fully felt the true meaning of Christmas that night.
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