I have a friend in my singles group whose sister passed away a few months ago. She has five children, with the youngest being just a couple of years older than Ryan. All of the kids have obviously had a very difficult time, but especially this youngest son. Although they didn’t have the financial need that most of our other families have in the past, as we thought about who we could do this for this year, we kept thinking that they were the family that needed it the most. My hope was that it would give the kids something fun to look forward to every day during the holiday season.
Since the family wasn’t in financial need, we had a fun time thinking of things that they would enjoy together. The older kids are now away at college and making their own homes, so we also incorporated some things that they could start to use in their own homes. Luckily, I had already been thinking about it for several weeks, and had been gathering things for us to give. Had we decided to do it any later, we would not have had the money to do it because of our own financial challenges in December.
Because we did this anonymously, and the members of their family are not likely to find our blog, I’m going to post what we did.
Here were our gifts to them every day:
On the first day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me...Pear Jelly Bellies and decorations for a tree.
I had a glass container shaped like a tree that we put mostly green pear Jelly Bellies in, but added a few read ones for “ornaments.”
On the second day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…Two boxes of Turtles and two bags of Dove.
On the third day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…Three French Breads and a variety of homemade spreads.
We gave them one loaf of French bread, two baguettes, a jar of homemade garlic herb butter and several jars of homemade jams from our trees – cherry, peach, apricot, and apple butter, as well as a jar of Bear Lake raspberry jam.
On the fourth day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…Four Calling Birds.
In our note, we included that the calling birds were often associated with music. We had an ornament of the Four Calling Birds, and also included a box of toffee and a $10 iTunes gift card.
On the fifth day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…Five golden rings.
We actually gave them 6 original glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
On the sixth day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…6 geese-a-laying. Here are a couple of things to have with your eggs for breakfast.
We included a Lehi Roller Mills blueberry pancake mix, Christmas muffin mix, and Christmas muffin cups.
On the seventh day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…Seven singing swimmers! Does it really matter what the gift is when seven wet swimmers deliver it to your door on December 19?
I went on to explain that swimmers’ favorite snacks include protein and carbs, and that one of the favorite combinations of protein and carbs is cheese and crackers. We gave them a huge tray of different types of crackers and cheese.)
But the people making the delivery were the best part – seven of my favorite swimmers! The swimmers said that the kids invited them in, and then chuckled at their craziness as they sang. That was the goal!
On the eighth day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…The day calls for 8 maids-a-milking. What goes better with milk than COOKIES?!?!
We gave them an oven mitt set, a mitten cookie jar, sugar cookie mix, Christmas cookie cutters, and a gingerbread candle in a gift bag with a bakery on the front.
We also gave them a plate of our Nutter Butter reindeer and Oreo snowmen cookies, with Hershey’s kisses and Butterfinger bells also on a cute snowman tray.
On the ninth day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…The day calls for 9 ladies dancing. Ladies, dancers or not, deserve to be pampered every once in a while. So today’s gift is for the ladies.
We put a bunch of lotion, body wash, soaps, and bath poofs in a basket. Our friend and neighbor, Brenn, a dancer who has been in the Nutcracker ballet, was our delivery girl. She even delivered on pointe! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and didn’t take a picture of Brenn in her ballet clothing.
On the tenth day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…10 lords-a-leaping. Today’s gift is for the men of the house.
We gave them several packages of gourmet jerkey and mixed nuts – snacks that men like. :)
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…11 pipers piping.
We gave “piping” hot chocolate, peppermint sticks, and TimTams, along with the “recipe” for TimTam slams.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my new friends gave to me…12 drummers drumming.
We gave a huge “drum” of popcorn and a “drum” of Almond Roca. I didn’t take a picture.
We had SO much fun doing it! We didn’t tell them who we were, and I didn’t even tell my friend that we were the ones who did it for her sister’s family. We will probably never know exactly how they felt about it. But I have a friend in our neighborhood who has known this family for a long time. She last saw them and talked with them at their mom’s funeral. When I told her that we had done the 12 Days of Christmas for them, she also mentioned how much the kids had been struggling, especially the youngest son. She confirmed our thoughts – that our daily deliveries probably really lifted their spirits and gave them something fun to look forward to during the first difficult holiday season without their mom.
It was interesting to observe the literal blessings that came to our family as we went ahead and did the 12 Days of Christmas for this family. On four out of the 12 days of our deliveries, we received money that we had not expected. Two of those times, it was money we had earned (consignment stores, etc.), but the other two were people doing kind things for us. Ryan and I were able to discuss on a daily basis how doing kind things for others brought us ten-fold blessings in return, and not just material blessings. We loved doing it this year, and will try to continue our tradition in the years to come.
How fun, Melanie! You guys are awesome :)
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