Meek Family Memories: Christmas Spirit

We've been busy this holiday season, which has kept our Christmas spirit up and going strong!

We have loved the excitement of getting a gift in the mail every day from our friend's and family's holiday cards! It's so fun to see how each family has grown and changed.

One thing that was very dear to our hearts was adopting a family with our church small group.

There was a single mom of 4 kids - two boys ages 12 and 11, and two girls ages 9 and 21 months. Each of our families chose one of the five to buy gifts for. We chose the 21 month old girl.

When we went shopping for the little girl, we just couldn't stop buying things for her! We originally figured we would spend about $30-$40, but ended up spending $75 on her. The entire time we were shopping for her, I kept getting a little sad and I teared up so many times thinking of the mom raising the kids on her own, what a blessing our small group was being to her and her kids, and just how grateful I was for being in the position to be able to help out.

When asked if the mom would prefer the gifts to wrapped or unwrapped, she said that she enjoys wrapping gifts but couldn't afford to buy any wrapping paper. So, we all even supplied the wrapping paper, scissors and tape.

One evening, some of us met at the family's apartment to play Santa.

We all had our arms full of bags and gifts for the family.

We brought our kids so they could experience giving without the expectation of getting things in return.

The kids were so sweet carrying the bags in.

Here you can see Mason carrying a big bag in in the background.

It was a small price to pay to help another mother out. While we were bringing the gifts in, she kept saying "Wow! Thank you so much!" "This is incredible!" "What a blessing you all are to us!" And then she had the four kids come down to say thank you. She was very sweet and gave us hugs as we left.

Mason was just such a sweetie. He left telling us that he wanted to go give more toys to kids that didn't have any. It was such a sweet thing to do as a family and with our sweet, thoughtful friends.

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Another thing that has kept us in the Christmas spirit, is packing up and driving around to look at Christmas lights!

We all love to see the lights, so several evenings we got all comfy and cozy in our jammies, got our chocolate milk for the kids and hot chocolate for us, and ventured out around town and nearby cities!

Morgan goes to bed at 7 and it was usually around 6-6:30 that we would head out. But she did great and had a blast along with us!... For about an hour or two anyway. Then she would nap the rest of the time.

Here is Sis driving around looking at lights exactly 1 year ago. Isn't she just precious then and now?!

They both loved watching the lights!

Our first stop was the Downs Family House in East Norman. Click HERE to see videos of the music going with different songs.

They said there's 64 stakes per tree, and they calculated they had to swing the sledgehammer about 1,300 times per tree!

On their website, they state that there are 2 main reasons why they do the huge lights display every year.

"First, about 2,000 years ago our Lord gave us the greatest gift imaginable..... the gift of eternal life. This is a simple way of saying 'Thank You' to the Lord. No amount of work on this display could ever compare to his sacrifice. What's a few lights compared to the gift of salvation?

Second, Christmas memories are timeless, and we want to create special memories for our community. We don't really know why, but the combination of lights and music create a lasting memory for everybody who has seen the display."

And they have a place where you can leave items to be delivered to the local Regional Food Bank... How awesome is that??

Another stop was through all the beautiful neighborhoods around town.

Another night, our fifth family member, Rufus, joined us.

We took off to the city to see the lights around Chesapeake. It is my favorite every year!

For several years, they only had white lights on one row of trees. But now that they own even more property around the area, they put lights on a TON of trees for blocks all around, and they change from white to colored. It's absolutely gorgeous!!

I let Mase sit up front with me as we strolled through the area.

Then we got out and walked through some of them.

It wasn't too cold of a night, so we took some time and got a few pics. It was just too beautiful to not!

We had our drinks in hand, and enjoyed driving through Nichols Hills and other neighborhoods. Another one of our favorite places to go every year is the Markwell Lights in Yukon. It's an entire neighborhood that has lights and music coordinated together. Click HERE to check it out. We always let Mason drive in the front seat with Daddy or sit up front with me, and he loves it!