Service

Before Christmas, I was trying to figure out what kind of service project I wanted to do with my kids, to help them get into the spirit of giving. I was listening to General Conference every day after dropping Kyla off at preschool (SUCH a good idea. I got so much out of it) and was listening to President Monson talk about the Provo Tabernacle Temple. He then started talking about a Temple Patron Fund that members could donate money to, which would go toward helping those who want to go to the temple but don't have the funds to do so(I didn't hear that the first time around. I blame the children). I felt the spirit very strongly telling me that this is what we needed to do.

So I began to brainstorm and talked to the kids about it. I wanted them to come up with some ways that they could contribute (more so than just doing jobs for me). We came up with a couple of projects that they could do. 

They spent one afternoon making ornaments for the Christmas tree (using pipe cleaners and tribeads). They made icicles, wreaths and candy canes.

Then we found some cheap flowers and alligator clips and made some barrettes.

One afternoon, Damon, Allie, Kyla and Carter went door to door in our neighborhood, selling their crafts. Damon practiced his speech about how we were trying to earn money for the temple fund and offered to sell the items for 50 cents each. They came home about an hour later with $10 (bless our nice neighbors!). They were pretty pleased with themselves.

I emailed my brother in Argentina and asked how much it would cost for a family to take a trip to the temple (the nearest one to him is in Santiago, Chile) and he told me around $65. So we set that as our family goal.

We also decided to clean out our basement, as we think we may be able to start the process of finishing it soon. I was SOOOOOOO tired of cleaning up all the play food, and the girls are really growing out of that stage, so I convinced them to take it to Kid to Kid and see how much they would give us for the kitchen, the play food, and some other items (exersaucer, stroller, baby gate). We were offered $70. I'm sure I could have gotten more if I had sold each item individually on KSL.com, but we were in a bit of a time crunch with Christmas coming. The kids were happy and so were we. Now we had $80 to give to the bishop on Sunday. What a fun thing to do. I hope it made an impression on them, because it sure made my heart swell when I looked out the window and saw the four of them, bundled up in their coats (back when it was cold), trying to sell their homemade crafts. Probably one of my favorite moments from this Christmas season for me.