Each year the kids in our bible study pull names and do a gift exchange for Christmas, and we have a little Christmas party together... We'd all be talking about doing a service project together, so Brian and I came up with a few ideas to serve the homeless and senior citizens in our area.
So instead of our annual Christmas party, we went caroling at a nursing home together! And it was awesome.
Thankfully we had our professional musicians The Mann's with us to get us through- having Brian on the piano was such a treat-
He played and warmed up the crowd as they all slowly gathered-
Our showtime was 6pm- and they asked us not to delay much, because the residents had all already had dinner and were anxious to get to bed! I completed understand that.
I was in tears looking out at the large crowd and seeing them smiling, some singing along- and truth be told- two even fell asleep! I set this up for our group and every minute of my time was absolutely worth it.
The Mann's brought along Brian's parents, who were in town visiting from Minnesota, Macy's friend Quinn's family joined us because Quinn wanted to do a service project like this for Christmas, and Tate's friend Jonathan got to carol with us also, as his mom works here and was our connection to making this happen! Zoey is the oldest teenager in our group- 16 yrs old. When her family showed up that night, she had a friend with her- and neither one of them was in any festive attire. (Everyone else in our group was- that was SO cool!) Zoey told me that she and her friend wouldn't be caroling, because they were getting picked up to go to the high school basketball game. Thankfully I brought along extra santa & elf hats- and I put one on each of their heads, and said they first had to carol, then they could go to the game! And guess what? Those girls loved it and thanked me before the left for the game- and their ride was late anyway!
Tate, Jonathan and Jeremy-
The kids made cards for the residents and walked around after our performance and handed them out, along with a candy cane. This one woman in particular really enjoyed talking with Quinn and Macy-
After the performance it was so lovely to see everyone from our group- young and old- interacting with the residents. It was so heartwarming to us, and I hope it was to them also...
The kids usually do a gift exchange for Christmas, but this year we threw out the idea that instead of buying each other gifts, they could use that money and fill up a Christmas stocking for a homeless person. And they all agreed!
I made contact with a local homeless organization and they told me exactly what to put in each stocking, and gave us a list of other items they could use to stock up on as well. So after we went caroling, we went to drop off all the goods and stockings for our local homeless friends-
It was such a cold, rainy night- and the kids were a little vocal about the bad weather. It was a great reminder that their slight discomfort getting in/out of the car and carrying things is NOTHING compared to sleeping outside and having to carry ALL of your belongings. Teachable moment for sure...
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