Have I ever told you how great of a family I married into? I mean, I seriously love Nick's family.
Well last night I got a better understanding of why they are such an inspiration to me and everyone else they know.
We had the cousin Christmas party last night and we had a blast making ornaments, cupcake decorating, making scarfs, and eating lots and lots of food {of course!}
We also went caroling, to three places specifically. The first house that we hit up was a jewish family. Apparently my mother-in-law's aunt and uncle went walking in the neighborhood and met them one Sunday and invited them to have dinner with the family. They have loved the Shumways ever since and greeted everyone with hugs and love. We sang carols and they told the amazing story about the oil lasting for seven more days than it was supposed to. It was amazing to share love and faith between two religions. I was especially amazed at how the people we talked to centered Hanukah on their faith, and not on the presents. I wish Christmas was more like that. Only a few simple presents and with the major focus on faith and the birth of our savior Jesus Christ.
The next place we caroled was to the house of an elderly couple. They smiled and shed tears of joy as we entered their home singing carols of Christmas. The joy that we put on their faces was priceless to me.
The last place we caroled was Basha's. For Thanksgiving the Shumways invited this lady who works at Basha's to come and eat dinner with us, and now she loves the whole Shumway clan too. She said she even turned down Trey Basha {the owner of Basha's} to come eat dinner with our family. So we sang to her in Basha's and she cried and cried and hugged and was so happy. It made me feel good that we had spread some Christmas cheer to this lady with no family.
This Christmas I want to focus on making people happy and giving love to those in need. It's not about presents, even though we say that a lot, it's really not. It's about remembering the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and doing the things he would be doing if he lived on the earth right now.
Merry CHRISTmas
Loves,
Kristin
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