Our Christmas Miracle

On Sunday December 16th we came home from church and found this waiting for us on our front porch.


When I first saw it as we drove up I thought it must have been the rest of the 12 days of Christmas gifts from David's parents. But then I realized that would be silly since we were going over to their house for dinner. They would just wait to give the gifts to us then.
I jumped out of the van (after we parked it of course) and ran to check it out.

As I saw the box full of food, the other box full of gifts and then the 2 huge gifts my heart was overcome with gratitude.

See I'd been praying and wondering how Christmas would turn out. Money was very tight. I carefully planned out the gifts for everyone (including myself) and had planned a budget of $50 or less for the boys and a little bit more for David and me. Well a few nights before the 16th David and I counted up how much we had spent on each boy. For the 5 gift categories (Santa, want, need, wear, read) we came under $30 for each boy! I was truly amazed! And I was super excited about how little we spent because I was super excited about every single gift. The gifts were well thought out and I knew they were things that the boys would love. We laughed at how little we had spent but we were so pleased with it too. We cherish simple Christmases and we felt like we had achieved that this year. Of course I had desires to give them big, fun things, but I knew those things weren't necessary to having a great Christmas. I really think the scripture advent I put together made all the difference. It helped me refocus on what really matters about Christmas- our Savior.
I've heard countless stories of Christmas miracles. Christmas 2011 my sister had several. She was richly blessed by ward friends and many others. It was amazing to see. I've even participated in delivering Christmas "miracles" to others. But I secretly hoped for our own miracle. Something to show that we were not forgotten. Something to make things a little bit easier for our family. Something to share with our children as they grow up to remind them of God's love for them and of the goodness of others. I didn't even dare pray for one though.

But seeing this box taught me and reminded me that Heavenly Father knows our hearts and our desires. I knew I was not forgotten. I knew our family was not forgotten. I was truly humbled as I stared at all the wonderful things some kind people had left for us.

We carried in all the packages. We put the food away in the pantry and put the presents under the tree. We waited until Christmas morning to see what our kind "ward friends" had given us.

After opening Santa's gifts to us, we then opened our gifts from our dear ward friends.

And again I was humbled.
My boys were ecstatic as they opened all these new treasures.

A lovely wooden train set.

Awesome foam building blocks.

Countless books and coloring books were unwrapped.

Even a few little gifts for David and me. 

So to our dear ward friends, whoever you may be, we love you so dearly and we are forever grateful for your love and thoughtfulness. Thank you for listening to the spirit and for taking the opportunity to remind us that God is always mindful of us. Your kindness will never be forgotten. And hopefully one day very soon we will be able to bless another family with their own Christmas miracle.