Most people who come home for the holidays have every moment scheduled with family and friends… dinners, parties, coffee, Bible studies, sharing about their trip / what they saw & learned / how they are different / what their plans are now. Well that’s most people anyways. When I come home it’s only to my mom and stepdad, the rest of the Brady Bunch (2 sisters and 3 stepbrothers, dad and stepmom, 2 stepbrothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) are spread all across the US.
So after two flights with really bad airplane food, having my bag stay overnight in Paris without me, then getting pulled over and having all of my bags searched (I don’t think they had every heard of Swaziland so I was flagged down). It was back to life at home – for the last 10 years my family has been involved with a charity called the Ronald McDonald House Holiday Cruise. They were running a little behind in their normal schedule and had a lot of families just arrive at the house… this meant that I spent my days buying Christmas presents for children at the house (not just the patients, but their siblings as well), and then wrapping them. And of course the gal that was going to do the sugar cookies bailed on us the night before the event, so I made a few dozen cookies as well. For some of the families it is their last Christmas together, and the rest it’s a time far away from the rest of their loved ones. We make sure that Christmas Eve is a time where they can forget all of that, where they can enjoy a beautiful meal together and open the exact presents on their wish list.
Once Christmas is over it’s back to normal life at my mom’s – dropping off food at a local shelter (it’s the only one that allows families with teenage boys to stay there, & because they are small they are often forgotten even at the holiday season), working at the church (picking up rubbish, painting the back hallway, etc.), and helping anyone that asks for it (hauling lumber and cleaning up the yard of a man just diagnosed with cancer, etc). I may not have a job, or know what I’ll be doing for the next month but I will definitely have enough to keep me busy!
P.S. I did get to meet one of my stepbrothers & his family for the first time as they are moving back to Washington & stopped by for a night. Plus my little sister, Courtney came up for a few days from California. It was a huge blessing since I didn’t think I’d get to see anyone!
