Front Royal, Virginia

This is not our first year giving away a Christmas Jar but it might be our most memorable.

After giving jars away anonymously with ding-dong ditches we decided this year we would give it away in a restaurant. We’ve always wanted to try it. So we went into an IHOP and we are convinced that God lead us to the right table.

We found pretty quickly that our server was back on the job for the first day in a long time after having a baby. So not only is she missing her baby, but she is working on Christmas Eve.

But wait for the very best part! Her name was charity. Seriously you can’t make that up.

After we were done eating we handed her a copy of the book “The Christmas Jars” and explained a little bit about the tradition inside the book. Then we told her that we had our own family tradition of giving the book to someone to help them understand how it worked. She smiled and was very grateful. Then we put a jar out from underneath the table and said “But of course we also like to give that same person the jar that we have been filling all year!”

She started to cry and even though she blamed it on just having had a baby we know otherwise! She also asked to hug all of us and we walked out with a big smile on our faces. Maybe the best thing was we saw her walk into the kitchen area and every gathered around to see what had happened. They were very kind and even congratulated her.

This is why we’ve been doing Christmas Jars for a while now. Our kids loves these delivery days it’s the highlight of the year! Because it’s not about the money at all. It’s about the love you feel. Even when it’s a complete stranger named Charity.