Kansas:
I have never received a Christmas Jar, but this will be my 3rd year giving one. 4 years ago my dad gave me the book for Christmas and that next year we both started filling our Jars. At Christmas time we put the jars together and decided who would get the Jar. The first year we picked a family from my daughters school. The oldest daughter has health problems and the father had been laid off. They were living off of minimal income. The next year we picked a student I, the pervious year. He had just been diagnosed with cancer.
I have worried all year, this year if I would be able to do it. We have had some set packs. My youngest has been sick most of the year. We have had hospital stays, Dr. visits, and test after test. We are, this coming week, making a trip to Mayo Clinic, in hopes for answers. With her being sick more than not, I have not been able to work. I have worked 2 days in the last 2 months. Income is very tight. My husband farms and with the drought this year, the crops were not that great. Even with our own struggles I have managed to fill my jar and we will be giving it away again this year. It is a smaller jar than the past but I refuse to park this tradition. Both of my children, 9 and 2, love to put coins in it. The last two years my daughter has emptied half of her piggy bank, the day I was going to delivery the jar, and added to it.
The family getting our jar this year just lost their month old baby to a heart defect.