I know, it's not really here yet, but it's begun around our house. The Santa Sleigh is out front as is the Santa's Workshop we built last year. Next Friday night I begin at 6 p.m. in front of the house as Santa. We've put hundreds of flyers out around Balch Springs and Mesquite, TX inviting parents to bring their kids by to see Santa and snap their own pictures for their memories. It's an exciting time.
And at the same time I must confess at this writing I have no idea how the holidays are going to go. We've been dealt a damaging financial blow at our house this year and every penny has an immeasurable value. I don't know how much time I'm going to get to spend with my kids. I'm going to be working to make up for time I've had to take off during the summer months; not necessarily because I've been told to make up the time, but because I'm honest enough to feel compelled to do so.
Tonight after work Kari told me something incredible that brought me great joy. Yesterday as school across the street was ending, I was out handing out flyers (Download 12 nights 2009 Santa Cop Flyer) inviting moms and dads to bring their kids by beginning next week for The 12 Nights of Christmas in Balch Springs. Until now Kari and I have paid for everything associated with this endeavor, from building the sleigh, the workshop, the cost of the lights to rival National Lampoon's Chevy Chase house, and heck, Kari even made the Santa suit from last year that I shall don again in a week's time.
She said a mom stopped her as she picked up Ashleigh today from school and asked, "Hey, isn't your husband the guy doing Santa Claus?" When Kari said yes, the lady then surprised her. "Can I give him some candy canes to hand out to kids?" YES! The miracle of what Christmas is all about lives in this wonderful lady as well.
She also asked if the toys we're helping gather for the Balch Springs Police Department's 23rd Annual Santa Cop program have to be brand new toys. They don't.
They just need to be unwrapped so that the police officers can know what they are and whom to give them to when they do so. This wonderful lady said she had some like-new toys she wanted to give to kids in need. Again, I say, YES!
I don't know this wonderful lady's name, but she just made my Christmas. Through something we've done here at our house to give to others, others also are finding ways to use our contribution to make theirs meaningful, too. There is a power in that, a power that in the darkest, most painful days of 2009, when I fought back tears (and let some pass in great quantities) from the shear pain and injustices we were enduring, the peace and purity of maintaining our integrity, maintaining our faith in God, and our devotion to others, I never could have imagined what we would do to help others at the end of the year would have this much more meaning.
Christmas is simply my favorite time of the year. Long ago I learned to accept that I wasn't going to get material gifts that I might want for Christmas. After all, typically if I want something bad enough, I set my mind to earning it and God has provided. Sure, I want my kids to experience the bountiful joys of opening incredible things I wish I could get, like Macs for all of them, complete with the software to help them become good at things like video editing, photo editing, and the like. We'd love to make another Christmas trip to Yosemite.
But I don't see that happening this year. Instead we're going to be able to have something together no one will be able to take from us, the simple appreciation that we love each other no matter what happens. We shall have the celebration that we're all healthy. We shall have the joy of seeing others enjoy a surprise when they truly are anticipating nothing.
My heart is filled with the joy of Christmas even a week before Thanksgiving, because while I'm thinking of the celebration of the birth of my Lord next month, I'm also thankful for all of the things he has given me in this life, most importantly my wife, Kari, and our seven kids: Ricky, Jerrod, Chandler, Logan, Reagan, Haley and Ashleigh. And now I'm inspired by the hope that there are other people in the world who still believe that giving is much better than receiving.
UPDATE: If you, too, would like to make a contribution through the Santa Cop program, or contribute things to give to the kids who visit Santa beginning next week, please post a comment or contact me through Twitter.
