Countdown to Christmas part 6

I learned all about charity from my family.  This story is about just one of the things we would do every year.

In my family we were raised to give, whether it was as a listener, or of our time.  This particular Christmas I was about 12 years old.  My grandparents and my mom had been planning some things that I hadn't paid any attention to until my mom said, "get your coat we need to go to the store."

In the car was my mom, her two younger sisters and myself.  I didn't realize why I was needed to go if there were the three of them until we arrived at the grocery and I was told to get a cart.  I was confused because each one of us had a cart, why would we need 4 grocery carts?  It didn't take long to find out.  My mom had a list and she just began filling up the carts.  I just followed the others around pushing my cart, trying to figure out where all of this food was going to go.  We had a large chest freezer in the garage but my grandparents filled that every fall so we didn't have to shop that much and it was completely full.   When we left the store loading the car was an adventure.  We piled as much as we could in the trunk but had to also put things in the backseat.

We we got home I was surprised to find 10 large banker boxes with wrapping paper decorating them lined up in the kitchen.  As we unloaded and separated the items from the grocery, my mom and grandmother began putting items in the boxes.  When we were done, those boxes were loaded into the car and my mom said to me "lets go".  This time it was just the two of us since there wasn't any room in the car with all 10 boxes for anyone else.  When we arrived at our Church there were a few of the Elders moving things around and I sawy other boxes there  with food items in them.

I found out on the way home that my mom, her siblings, and my grandparents all chip in and buy Christmas dinners for 10 family's that may not be able to afford to buy the amount of grocery's for the holiday, each box containing an entire meal,  turkey's, canned vegetables, bags of potatoes, and desserts.  The boxes are donated to the Church and had to be there by a specific time, so that family's could anonymously come to the Church and pick up the food after the donators had left.

When my older cousins and I began working we also started donating, and not just our time.  Because our family is so extensive and the in-laws began aiding in our endeavors, approximately 90  boxes are donated to the Church every year, not just at Christmas, but divided between at Easter, and also Thanksgiving.

Knowing that someone out there is having a holiday meal with their family, something that I had always taken for granted as a kid, always warms my heart.

Until tomorrow..............