The Allison Family's New Christmas Tradition

The Holy Spirit came last night and spoke to my husband. We were just getting packed up to leave to go look at Christmas lights. He said, "You know, wouldn't it be neat to go and give a Christmas card to the people that have to work on Christmas Eve?" And although we didn't really have a plan as to how to do it, we decided that it was something from God and we would carry through with it. So we packed up Kyleigh and all our spare Christmas cards in the car, and I wrote them while Matt drove around looking for places that were open. (This was all around 9:30 or 10:00 last night.)

The cards said:
"This is just a silly card to cheer you up while you work on Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May God bless you. Our family will be praying specifically for you tonight as you work."
(We also put the name of our church and its phone number on the back.)

All in all I think we dropped off a little more than 10 cards and we didn't get home until close to midnight. But it was fantastic.

When we got to our fourth place, it was my turn to go in and hand the attendant the card. There was a line of about 3 people ahead of me. So rather than cut in line, I just stood and waited my turn. When I got up to the man, he said, "How can I help you?" And I said, "I don't need anything. My family just wants to wish you a Merry Christmas since you have to work on Christmas Eve! May God bless you!" and I handed him the card. His eyes welled up with tears and he said a broken "thank you, Merry Christmas." It was awesome!! A few times when Matt went in to give the card it was to "rough" looking men. They looked at him kind of funny, but then when they understood he was just bringing them a gift, they got a look of gratitude on their faces and every one of them shook his hand. Another place we stopped looked pretty scary. The cashier had a long line of really rough looking people, all buying late night booze and liquor. Matt just marched right in, up to the front of the line, handed the card to the cashier with our little spiel and turned to the line of about six people and said "Merry Christmas!" and got six Merry Christmases right back!

Next year we've vowed that we'll have our cards prepared ahead of time, possibly with some homemade cookies or treats. By that time Kyleigh will be walking, and she can help us hand the cards out. The year after that, we'll take homemade pictures that Kyleigh drew/colored in addition to our cards.

It was so amazing! Thank you Jesus, for this opportunity.

Merry Christmas everyone! God bless us all!