BYERS, COLORADO:

This is our third year of giving a jar, but this one especially touched my heart. There is a little boy in my son’s first grade class whose family lost their house several months ago. As a result, the mother left, leaving the father with 5 children to care for and no house. They were lucky enough to find someone to let them rent a house no bigger then a 2 car garage. The father has had a hard time finding work this time of year as well, as he is an electrician and also has to be home to care for the kids. Their little house is nearly bare inside, no television and minimal furnishings. The younger children all wear clothing passed down from their older siblings, that is way too big on them, shoes and all. We had heard that he had told a mutual friend of ours that he would not be able to afford Christmas and that he had planned to give each child $20 to go out and buy one thing they really wanted. We usually wait until Dec. 18th to deliver our jars because it is also our youngest sons birthday and we hoped to start a tradition for him to look forward to. But this year we decided to give a few weeks early. Since the family knows who we are, we took advantage when our older son returned home from college one weekend with two friends. We had them go deliver the jar for us. I think it touched all of them as well. They knocked on the door and the father came out closing the door behind him. He asked them who they were and they replied “Merry Christmas”. Again he asked who they were and what they were giving him. They handed it to him saying Merry Christmas once again and walked off the porch. The jar had contained $474 plus a $100 grocery gift card. I hope this helps them to have a much nicer Christmas.