Last year Elle wanted to do a coat and blanket drive for Christmas with our neighborhood and it was a total success. It was such a great thing for our family to do together and it was especially nice to have the kids have something service oriented to focus on for the month of December. We wanted to do something similar this year but having already done coats last year we didn't know if people would have more of those to give so this year we did STUFFED ANIMALS! We thought it would be a good way for kids to get involved as well. Elle made up the cutest flier and took them around to every single house in the neighborhood. That night we started getting stuffed animals put in our box on the front porch and honestly it never slowed down. We collected so many over the next couple of weeks! We had to keep emptying the box into bags and put them in the living room. It was fun watching the kids excitement watching that box fill up. The place I originally had planned on taking them told me that they couldn't take them anymore because they had too many donations. I started to panic because the next 4 or 5 places I called told me the same thing. After some research I made a call to the Road Home, which is the same place we took the coats last year, and they said they'd be thrilled to take the stuffed animals which made me SO happy. So we planned to make a day tout of it and drive them up as a family and deliver them. We started by going to Zupas first and had a super fun and GOOD lunch together. We then headed straight up to the Road Home. What a humbling experience. It's really hard to see the way that some people live. Honestly not even for my kids but even for myself! It is completely heartbreaking and it makes me wish so badly I could do more. I need to do more. And I love that my kids get to feel how good it feels to do something like this for others. We pulled up and opened the trunk and the kids got out and immediately started feeling the bins with the stuffed animals we had collected. The workers there told us that they were so excited to get stuffed animals because they hadn't gotten very many of them and then they told my kids that they were about to make a ton of other kids very happy. Made MY heart happy. While we were finishing loading them up Tate was holding on to a stuffed shark that he had grown extra fond of. He went to put it in the bin and then stopped and pulled it back into his arms and said, "So can I please keep this one?" I could tell how badly he wanted that stuffed shark. I wasn't sure how he was going to react but I just said "Tate if you can give them that shark that will make some little child who doesn't have very many toys very happy." He looked at it for a second and then said, "Okay mom." and gently put it on top of the pile. It honestly melted my heart. It did everyones. Even the workers thought it was the sweetest thing ever and wanted to take a picture of him so they could remember. So Cute. Also, another little interesting thing happened. Elle had one grocery bag left full of stuffed animals that she asked if she could keep and deliver another time to someone like when we went to do the Burrito Project or something. I told her no we can gather more later and just to put them in the bin. She asked me again and I said no…the third time I finally said okay whatever Elle. Back to that later. - So after we dropped off the stuffed animals we drove to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we waited in line for the Light the World Vending Machines. The kids were so excited to buy some chickens, 100 meals, and a bunch of water for some families around the world. Such a neat idea. We then walked around the Temple grounds and saw the nativity, the Christus, (where Tate begged me to let him Hug Jesus) and looked at all the incredible pictures in the visitor center and even walked into the old tabernacle and taught the kids about some history there. It was a really special time with the kids. We also took a quick walking detour to see the Candy Windows at Macy's. While we were crossing the street we saw two homeless people each holding different signs. Elle immediately asked Toby for some money. He only had one $5 bill and handed it to her. We watched her look back and forth and then hand it to the man instead of the women and we proceeded to cross the street. I wondered why she had chosen him. After we crossed the street she asked us if we could take the extra bag of stuffed animals in the car back to the other homeless women there. I asked her why and she told me that her sign had read "Please help. I have nothing to give my Grandchildren for Christmas." So after looking at all the beautiful candy windows we got back in the car and pulled right out onto South Temple and right up to the women. Elle jumped out of the car and walked over to her. Watching the exchange between the two brought tears to my eyes. Elle was so sweet and excited to give them to her and her face absolutely lit up when she looked in the bag. Even as Elle was walking away the women pulled one of the animals out of the bag and held it up to her face in a hug. It was seriously the most incredible thing and a HUGE spiritual experience to us of how important it is to listen to the promptings of the spirit….Elle had a feeling to keep out one bag of the stuffed animals and I was SO grateful she did. What a great example to me and an experience that we will remember for many Christmas's to come.
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