The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints put out an advent calendar and challenged everyone to help light the world through the love of Jesus Christ during the month of December. We decided to give it a go. I was shocked at how into it the kids got. The hardest part for me was posting about it on social media - I am not really that type. But when I read about the challenge it was clear to me that the church was asking us to post about what we are doing and using hashtags. So I did.
I didn't post, or even take pictures, everyday. Some didn't lend themselves to a good post of picture. On Christmas we were talking about what we had done and we couldn't even remember everything that we did - I told them that was good and explained the scripture about your left hand not knowing what your right hand is doing.
One day we drove around the neighborhood and shoveled peoples driveways. They were complete strangers. I had planned on just doing one - but after each one the kids said they wanted to go do more. We spent over 3 hours shoveling and dusting off cars. The best part was Noah. Noah is not a very hard worker by nature. But he was on fire. I had never ever seen him work this hard, for this long, and with a good attitude. He even did good work - he was our porch shoveler and actually did a really great job and was very proud of himself - he even tells people now, "I am a great porch shoveler".
We went and sang at a retirement center with some other families in our ward.
We made food and took it to people.
We made muddie buddies and took and drove around the neighborhood giving it to mailmen, ups, and fed ex drivers. This was maybe our most fun one. They were so surprised and appreciative. We did it again on Christmas eve to show extra gratitude for working on Christmas eve.
We hosted a neighborhood nativity out in our street. I did this last year too. This year I got a stable! I love bringing the spirit of Christmas into our neighborhood and the lives of our neighbors. Through out the year this last year some of the kids asked when we were going to do it again.
We went and played games at a retirement center (we have one in our ward boundaries and I am actually the liaison for the ward - so it was a easy thing to do often)
I have been a cultural mentor for a refugee family form Ethiopia for the last few months. It has been a wonderful expierence. One day for light the world - I took my kids to go visit them (they hadn't yet) we took them to the park and then to a thrift store to buy some winter clothes.
And then we hung out at their apartment for a little bit.
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