A Beginning of a Family Tradition

Perhaps one of my favorite events about this holiday season was when David and I had the priviledge of giving gifts to four children. One of the Del Sol employees, Maria, had been on both of our minds during the holidays. David wanted to do something especially nice for her. He found out that their family didn't have a Christmas tree and that Maria was buying each of her four children one gift from the dollar store, so we knew just what to do for her and her little family.

We did run into a few complications en route to Maria and Beto's house. David had casually found out where she lived (along with other employees so Maria wouldn't be suspicious) and the directions she gave seemed very easy. When we drove up to West Bay we found that the directions were not accurate and that we had no idea where to leave the gifts. We were so desperate that we even began knocking on doors near the area that we believed to be her neighborhood!

Casey and Jamie were a huge help when they told us that Beto's mother's name was Cloritta. They found a Cloritta in the phonebook. When I called Cloritta I found that Beto's mother is named Clorette. I asked Cloritta if she had Clorette's number. She did not, but she told me that Clorette's mother's phone number was in the phonebook. When I called Miss Aldine she was able to give perfect directions. In fact, she got right on in the car with us to make sure we found the exact house. I thought how convenient it was to live on a tiny island- where else can you pick up a phonebook, call someone and find that they knew exactly who you were looking for and the name of their mother. In the end it was Maria's husband's mother's friend who gave us the number to his mother's mother who made everything possible.

David and I set up the real, deliciously smelling Christmas tree with twinkle lights, and four beautifully wrapped gifts right up on their porch and then ran into the bushes to watch their reaction.

Maria has four kids ages four and under. She has herself a handful. Arianna, Darius, Darian, and Alexia are four of the most adorable kids. We had fun shopping for toys to give them while we were in Miami. Below are photos we took of the two boys a couple months ago.

Del Sol did a gift exchange on Christmas Eve and David and I had Maria's name. We gave her a bunch of bath stuff. When she thanked me for the gift I was foolish enough to think she meant the gifts for the kids. I responded with, "How did you know? Did you see me in the bushes?" Woopsies. She had no idea. Apparently Miss Aldine said that David and someone with long dark hair dropped off the gifts (even though we begged her not to tell that it was us) and Maria still didn't guess who it was. Oh well, now I know for next year to keep my guard up even after the gifts are given so that I don't spoil the whole point of being anonymous.

Two things I know for sure from this experience:

1) I want to keep this as a family tradition for years to come

2) I will never forget the picture I have in my mind of seeing one of the little boys touching the bottom of the tree with his sweet little hand as his huge brown eyes took in the gifts and tree sitting on his porch. It's an image that I will associate Christmas with when I think of the reason for the season.