For whatever reason I'm taken back to this time last year when we were doing Jolly 4 Joplin.
Have I told you about that?
Well, in May of last year, a small city called Joplin was hit by a tornado. And because kids' families were so busy rebuilding their homes, they couldn't afford to buy Christmas presents. So our team at school (I was in eighth grade) contacted my science teacher's friend in Joplin, who usually dressed up as Santa at malls and stuff. The kids at one elementary school wrote letters to Santa. We were Santa. We raised money, then went out on a wonderful shopping day and bought the presents. I still remember my girl, Gabby, and the present she asked for. (Though I was a little surprised when she opened her play makeup set and I realised I just basically slapped fifteen different eyeshadows on a kindergartener!) It was a wonderful day that I'll never forget. We left for Target on the city buses in the morning, ran around buying gifts. I got to help manage all the spare change when we got to West Acres. Then we had lunch, bussed back to the school, and wrapped the presents. What fun the wrapping was! Ribbons and tape and news crews everywhere!
It's a pity I've lost that T-shirt. After we helped load all the presents onto the truck, we couldn't wait for the day. Finally it came. We all sat in the auditorium with our Jolly 4 Joplin shirts on and watched the kids (with their matching shirts) recieve their presents. It was so amazing! "Santa" was wonderful, and I'll always remember that one boy who went up to the camera and kept saying "Thank you" and "I love you". He was so cute! It was a wonderful day, a wonderful experience, to give some presents to kids who probably wouldn't get any others. Elf for a day. Haha.
This is the kind of thing I'll tell my kids about. Then I'll take them Christmas shopping and give them each a dollar to put in the salvation army man's bucket. Is it strange I've taken the thought that far?
Regardless, it's a nice memory.