Christmas Morning

I need to back track a little. Christmas morning only comes once a year, and that morning is very special to my family, not because we get to wake up early and rip open the presents and ooo and ahh at everything we get. Its important to us because we have a tradition of waking up early even earlier than I would like, and leaving our house at 4:45am to drive to Elmira a neighboring city to stand in line until 6am when they open the doors. Why we stand in line you ask? We stand in line to unselfishly serve the children in Elmira by delivering bags of toys to the less fortunate. And let me tell you this experience truly makes my Christmas. Yes it was freezing cold for me as now a Las Vegas resident, the snow was on the ground and everyone was bundled up, anxiously waiting to bring a family of children happiness on this holiday. This year my mom and I brought along more family so they could experience, the remarkable feeling you have after delivering these bags.

So my moms Cousin Tammie, her husband Chris, and Elizabeth all came to stand in line with us. They had been wanting to do this for some years when they found out that its what we did but Elizabeth was too young. Now the girl has grown up to be a beautiful young lady who's a freshman at Horseheads High School my alma mater. And just a side note this family is my favorite, I have always done everything with them, to babysitting when Elizabeth was just a little girl, going to Hershey Park with them, and hanging out with Elizabeth all summer, and just continuing to keep in contact with them. I love them so much and look forward to them playing an important role in my own family some day.

(Chris, Tammie, Elizabeth and my beautiful Mom)
So once they open the doors at 6am at the arctic league you go in and get the gifts and find the addresses and then deliver them. Usually a parent is waiting for them at the front door, sometimes you get very appreciative people and other times you get mean people. This year we actually had a young girl open the door, and I had another one where I gave the lady the bag and the little boy in the background said Mommy my bag has finally come. This experience is very heartwarming to me. A lot of these kids may get nothing more than what is in that bag. It kills me to think that while other kids are getting Ipods and the Wii these kids are just getting maybe a football, a game and a hat and gloves. I love this experience and will continue to carry it out for as long as I can.

(one of the stalls of gifts)

(people inside giving the gifts to people to deliver)

(this is the list of families we delivered to)