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Go Make a Miracle

My sister was going through a really rough time financially. Christmas wasn’t going to be easy… she was worried that her children wouldn’t have many gifts, and Christmas dinner may not be much of anything at all.

It wasn’t as if she wanted an extravagant Christmas… she was really worried that Christmas may not have come at all for her children if she would have told me the truth.

She was crying.

I hung up the phone so I could drive Corey to work. On the way there, I told Corey what was going on. I remember the ornery grin on his face when we came up with the idea…

We would give Cathy and her family Christmas.

It’s not like we had a LOT of money, but between his cash from his job at O’Charlie’s and the extra money left over from my shopping, we could definitely add to their Christmas magic.

That evening after he was finished working his shift, we pooled our money and decided the best way to give them our gift would be to do so anonymously. And the best way to do that would be to buy gift certificates.

Then we set out to Walmart. Cathy had 5 children living at home, so we bought 5 gift certificates of equal value, and we found another gift certificate for Price Chopper and bought it for a larger amount… for Christmas dinner. While we were there, we bought envelopes, and some address labels too.

We went home and put our plan into action.

“Dear James, I’ve been very busy this year! I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had enough time to make everyone their gifts! Can you please help me? I’ve enclosed a gift card, and if you could buy your brother Jacob a gift, I’d really appreciate it!! Oh, and please keep this a secret! Love, Santa.”

Every child had a card that named a different sibling. They were all printed on computer paper to hide my handwriting (very easy to recognize) and Corey’s (very hard to read) and put into a larger envelope.

In the larger envelope was placed the Price Chopper gift card and another note: “Dear Dean and Cathy, please use this for a nice Christmas Dinner. Love, Santa.” Simple and to the point.

Then we waited until midnight.

Corey was so excited, I thought he’d wet his pants!

When the time came, we drove to Blue Springs to her home, and parked two or three houses away from her home. And Corey was tasked with “sneaking” up to her mailbox and placing the envelope inside.

Imagine now if you will… a 20 year old man sneaking like the Pink Panther from post to post…
Tree to tree.
Tip toeing.
Slunking.
Sidestepping.
Popping his head around every corner.
Crawling behind cars.
Hiding behind her mailbox.

Finally Popping the envelope inside the box and SPRINTING back to my car.

He gets in the car and yells “GO GO GO!!!!!”

Then he hid in the floor board of my car!

I asked him why, and he said he thought a curtain moved in Cathy’s house.

I was laughing so hard, I had tears rolling down my cheek.

The next morning, my phone rang, and it was Cathy. She said, “You won’t believe this!! Guess what I found in my mailbox this morning!!…” As she told me what she’d found I put the phone on speaker so Corey could hear.

I watched his face as Cathy told of her Christmas miracle.

Corey cried.

But neither of us broke our silence till the day he died.

That day, I broke. That day I told Cathy. Maybe it was to let her know he loved her.

Or maybe it was so someone besides me could understand what an amazing kid he was. How he could give and never expect anything in return.

Ever.

Isn’t that what Christmas is about?

Merry Christmas.
Go make a miracle.
Believe me, It’s worth it.

Gwen Carver

One thought to “Go Make a Miracle”

  • Corliss R. Griffith

    October 9, 2017 at 10:18 PM

    Love these ideas! Keep sharing more blogs with more useful information. Thank you for all of your amazing ideas and wisdom! Giftformenwomen

    Reply

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