Here We Go a-Caroling

Do you remember our family's conversation a couple months ago about sharing, saving, and spending for Christmas? Here are some of the ideas that we generated back then and a brief status report on each:

Share

• deliver Christmas baking to neighbors -- still planning to do this
• deliver a meal to a business whose employees have to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas -- still considering this, although we don't know our travel plans yet; we may be out of town to celebrate Christmas with our families and, thus, unable to do this
• volunteer at a soup kitchen -- we learned that the Welcome Table Soup Kitchen won't be serving a meal at Christmas; so a few weeks ago, we contacted organizers of a community Thanksgiving dinner to volunteer our assistance but were told that our daughters couldn't be involved in helping
• go Christmas caroling at a nursing home -- did it today; read more about it below
• buy gifts to donate to Operation Christmas Child through our church and help pay for postage to mail the gift boxes -- did it
• buy gifts to donate to the Angel Tree at church -- did it
• provide special music at church on Christmas Eve or Christmas -- still planning to do this
• perform a Christmas play for the neighborhood -- the girls' idea; they haven't started writing the play or recruiting actors, so I'm guessing this won't be happening
• go julebukking in our neighborhood -- we're thinking that people won't "get" what we're doing or what they're supposed to do in return, so this probably won't happen

Save

• contribute money to each daughter's savings account -- did it; read this for details

Spend

• spend money on ingredients for Christmas baking to share with neighbors, friends, coworkers, nursing home residents, etc. -- did it; read this for details
• spend money on Christmas gifts -- in progress; this is not for our immediate family (remember?) but for friends and family with whom we exchange gifts
• spend money on Christmas cards and photos to mail to friends and family -- still planning to do this; we're still considering which family photo to use, and I'm still working on the annual Christmas tome
• spend money on travel to see friends and family at Christmas -- still planning to do this; we're still working out just exactly where we're traveling and when for family Christmas celebrations, but we know we'll be making a trip to eastern ND for a get-together with our dear friends out there; the people responsible for this are planning a pajama party for the weekend after Christmas, and we're invited

We also said back then that, as part of our Christmas celebrating, we would set up our creches, put out our Advent wreath, nightly light the Advent candle(s) and discuss together the daily Advent devotion and Bible verse, weekly attend church, and occasionally gather at the piano to sing Christmas hymns and songs--all of which we have done and will continue to do. Two things that we have not done:

• attend Christmas events in small towns in the region -- we had in mind scouring the newspapers to learn about local communities' annual Christmas events (Christmas light displays, winter parades, church Christmas programs, community choir concerts, sledding and horse-drawn carriage rides, Dickens Christmas reenactments, etc.) and driving around to attend them ("take them in"), but it's too danged cold to motivate ourselves to get out at night and on the road to places unknown--maybe another year
• bring Suzanna in for a tonsillectomy -- a child is truly desperate to end the agony of frequently inflamed tonsils when this is her only request for Christmas; sadly, this hasn't happened yet

Well, as noted above, today we tended to an item from our "Share" list: Susan took the girls Christmas caroling at the nursing home where Susan's grandparents live. The girls had hoped to go caroling in our neighborhood today, so they had invited friends over to join them, planning to load the little red wagon with wrapped plates of Christmas goodies (from last weekend's baking spree) and go door to door singing and handing out treats. Suzanna's friend had even made caroling folders for everybody to use, photocopying the lyrics of Christmas songs and pasting them inside covers that she made from red and green construction paper.

But it was just too cold for them to be spending time outdoors. Rather than cancel the event altogether, Susan first had the girls and their friends decorate gingerbread cookies and drink hot chocolate at our house, after which Hillary's friend had to go home. Susan then took the other two friends plus our three girls to the nursing home, where they distributed plates of Christmas baking and sang for the residents. They also sang for a friend who lives in the assisted-living apartments attached to the nursing home. They made caroling stops at the friends' grandparents' and parents' houses before returning home, delivering cookies every place that they sang. Here's photographic proof:

Here's Susan's grandma, Laura, enjoying the girls' performance for her in the nursing home.

Here are the girls performing for their friend Monica in her apartment: left to right, that's Hannah, Abigail, Hillary, Brittany (who made the caroling folders), and Suzanna. (Not pictured, of course, is Hillary's friend, the early exiting Madeline.)

Monica donned her Santa hat to pose with the carolers!