The Christmas Spirit

I really wanted the girls to participate in some sort of giving this year during the Christmas season. I was looking for a way for them to donate their old toys....but just didn't want them to dump them in a box somewhere at a drop-off. I wanted it to affect them. I wanted them to participate!

Then my lovely aunt had the wonderful idea to visit a nursing home and have the kids hand out stuffed animals to the residents. At face value it doesn't sound like much. But it was a wonderful experience all the way around.

Here are the little elves before heading down the halls...

We met up with Rex and family and other family members. We adorned Santa hats and bags of stuffed animals. The first lady we came across scared Brenna off. But only for a short time. Then as we walked through the dining hall and the halls of the rooms, the kids were freely going up to people offering animals and in return, got squeezed with endless hugs and lots of kisses. The animals were fun to hand out, but the people enjoyed the time with the kids even more! Even the ones that didn't get any animals (and we went in with 5 bags, yet didn't have near enough for everyone) were so happy for the ones that did and were happy to see all the kids doing such nice things.

Brooke and Brenna were more than happy to hand out animals and dish out hugs galore. The shyness wore off quickly.

And when Brenna got tired of handing out animals, she decided she'd do a magic show, pulling things (magically, of course) out of her Santa hat. A few of the residents watched on and were quite amused. :)

Several of the people specifically asked me, when they saw my camera, to take a picture of them with the kids. I might even print them out to take back to them. I think they'd love it.

And while you think, as I did, that we really only affected the residents... the story continues...

As we were waiting in the entryway for the rest of our crew to leave, Brooke ran up, with tears in her eyes I could swear, and proclaimed..."This was the best day ever Mommy!"