Delivering Delight

CHRISTMAS TRADITION #3: Delivering goodies to our neighbors and friends

Several Decembers ago, I remember Josh saying to me, "I was thinking maybe this year we could take plates of cookies to others."
"Okay" I replied.

At Christmas-time in my youth, my mother always made fruitcake or cheesecake tarts or something of the like to deliver to the neighbors in our ward. And of course, our family received plates of treats and gobs of goodies in return. And as children, we were quick to eat anything sugary and sweet that entered our home! But as I entered adulthood, it was something I chose not to participate in.

When we were newlyweds, we didn't participate in the neighborhood giving because within the first 3 Christmases of marriage, we lived in 3 different cities and we were still establishing friendships during that time.

We have lived in Salmon now for the past 9 years. The first five, I was working and never really felt energetic enough to take on the task of neighborhood deliveries during an already busy time of the year. So we never made plans to go and visit our neighbors or prepare plates to take to them. Occasionally we had others stop by and bring us something, so every year I purchased a few extra items that were to be handed out ONLY to people who delivered items to us at Christmas.

The year that Josh suggested doing it, I was finally ready to begin that step into adulthood: the stepping-over-the-threshold-into-adulthood-by-delivering-neighborhood-Christmas-plates step. It took me several years to be ready for that step; it's a big one, you know?!

And so, the first year we had about 8 plates filled with a conglomaration of random cookies and fudge. The next year, I did different types of no-bake cookies to fill the 12 plates with. Last year, I made cookies with Reese's Pieces and cookies with M&M's in them to put on the 15 plates. This year, I decided to do something other than cookies. I made 20 small jars of homemade spiced apple/pear jam and paired them with a can of biscuits to deliver.
It took us 3 rounds of delivery, and 5 hours of time to deliver all of them! But every cent I spent on the jars and biscuits, every minute of time making the jam, every gallon of gas that was used to deliver them was well worth it!!! I truly enjoyed every moment of delivering them. I loved sharing with the people that I love and who have made a difference in our lives during the past year. I was filled with a grateful and happy heart after delivering them. It was a reminder to me of all the wonderful people that God has blessed my family's lives with. No wonder people love delivering Christmas goodies at Christmas-time! It seems to me to be the most simple way to share His love of us with others! Giving is an easy and loving way to feel the true Christmas spirit and to spread Christmas cheer!

Now that I've taken that giant step of neighborhood delivering, I understand the reason for doing it and have felt His love while participating in it, and I'll never go back to the non-delivery days again!!!