This Christmas without gifts was an amazing experience. Our plans to Mexico were halted by the Bishop there that called and said it is unsafe with all of the violence right now. We had to quickly come up with Plan B. Jake and I both came up with a similar idea: we would go down to Bonanza where you pick up the Mexican workers and get a list of children in need. There is one worker who we knew. When we got to the designated place, we asked for Miguel. The “otro Miguel” called him on his phone. We announced we would bring them gifts. We also got a list of six other families we would help for Christmas. The people seemed gracious. In addition, we had two families that we would help from the Spanish ward. We had all of the names and ages for this family as well.
We took the kids with us on a shopping spree. We looked for toys that were on sale and that were fun for the kids. We started at Toys R Us, then Target, and Walmart. Then we went to Deseret Book to get each family a picture of Christ, a DVD of the testaments and also a Book of Mormon. Jake was able to type his testimony in Spanish in the back of the book.
It took several hours to wrap all of the gifts. Jake called the home of Miguel and Jake asked if we could come on Christmas morning. Miguel asked if there was anyway that we could come that evening. We told him it would be late but we would be there. We did the nativity with the family which is part of our rich Christmas tradition and then we were off to deliver gifts.
We first went to the “otro Miguel” home. They had a few presents under their tree. He had three children. There was also a woman there from the Phillippines. They seemed very grateful. I was also impressed to hear Jake bear his testimony as he gave the picture of Christ and explained about the DVD and book of Mormon.
The second stop was the best of the night. We went to Miguel’s home. He lived on Fremont Street in a hotel that you rent the rooms for one week. He was waiting outside for us when we got there. Apparently his friend Miguel had called him. When we went into his studio apartment there was a bed there, but no tree and no presents. The home was bare and had just a bed and kitchen table. My heart went out to them. Now I know why we were to go there that night. He had no Christmas gifts for his children. He had one child who was asleep and a two year old girl who was still awake. His son slept in his jacket and the little girl also wore her jacket in the home. The home was chilly. The girl was overjoyed with all of the gifts. We got her a beautiful dress. This is something I felt particularly impressed to buy her. I hadn’t planned on buying clothes but this and a dress for a baby was specific in my purchases. We also got her a large baby doll, balls, a musical toy, and a stocking filled to the brim with other items. They were very happy and very grateful. Jake again gave his testimony as he explained about the Hymns in Spanish that we gave this family along with the picture of Christ, DVD, and Book of Mormon. We also gave their children a Children’s Book of Mormon in Spanish.
The last home of the night was for Pablo. He wasn’t home but we were able to leave gifts for his two girls in Mexico. There was also a one year old baby next door. The man of this family came over and we gave him several more gifts as well. Apparently his wife was very ill and pregnant with her second child. We also gave some gifts to the room mate for his children. We had felt impressed to bring boxes of Miscellaneous gifts and this is one home where we used them.
We then were happy with our accomplishments and set off for home. Tomorrow as to bring another day of delivering gifts.
On Christmas Morning, we awoke around 7 a.m. We had Grandpas famous French Toast. We had the night before left a note for Santa to leave nothing for our family. While the other children were basking in Santa’s gifts, we were on to deliver more gifts.
We began at the home of Marcos. He had four grand children. He told Jake that his wife was a member of the Church. He had requested some information in Spanish on the church and we provided some for him as well as the Hymns. He brought two other men over who also had children. We got from our extra gift boxes and gave them many many gifts. We didn’t give them all though, I wanted to save some as we didn’t know what lie ahead for us. Marcos was very appreciative and talked to Jake more about the church.
The next home was another highlight of the trip. We knocked at the yellow house around 9:30 a.m. We were not able to reach them by phone and were unsure if we could connect. We knocked and knocked but could get no one to answer. We went back to the car and loaded the gifts and just then the mother poked her head out of the door. We then unloaded again and brought the gift inside to the surprised family. The small boy Brian was about 2 years old. He was adorable. He opened up a car that we got him and he loved it so much. We watched as he played with the car. We also got their baby a warm sleeper and a beautiful dress. For the older boy Luis we got him some Legos, and a Diego race track. He loved it. Out of the hallway came two more children. We confirmed how many children where in the house and I was back out to the car to get additional gifts. The family offered us some drink like cider with fruit inside. It was warm and we drank quite bit of it. We said goodbye and were off to our next home.
Max was the next receiptient. He had just one daughter. He was waiting for us outside and we gave him the bags. He told us his wife had taken his daughter for a walk. Regardless, we happily left the gifts and moved on.
We went to go and see the Abuela but she wasn’t home. So we planned to return to her later.
Our final home was the ward members. I had saved many special gifts for them. There were four boys. We had over 12 gifts for their family. Including a castle, two soccer balls, risk, dominoes, race track with two cars, two MP3 players. It was delightful. The boys kept on saying this is AWESOME. This rocks!
We told many our Christmas Tradition with no gifts. Connor said to me, “I think I will remember a couple of Christmases with gifts but I will never forget any of our Christmases without gifts.”
