Sunday, November 30, 2008

Christmas Memories...

So it is Sunday night and we just put up our Christmas decorations.  It feels good considering last year we did not put out one, not one, decoration.  We are sitting down as a family watching Dora and I started asking Jeff what his favorite Christmas memory was.  I thought I would post about it because I thought it was so funny.  Let me give you a little background.  Jeff's mom is a retired nurse.  She worked at the Utah State Developmental Center for like 20 years or something.  She worked directly with the developmentally disabled that lived there.  So when Jeff was 16, in 1994, his sweet mom thought that it would be meaningful if they invited the clients (Or the mentally challenged) that lived at the Developmental Center to come to their house for Christmas day.  Jeff said they really made a day of it.  There was about 12 of them, all older males, that came.  It started in the morning with breakfast, then there was some sort of Christmas gift exchange.  Then they made cookies that were to be delivered later while caroling.  Shiela (Jeff's Mom) had arranged to go caroling at the different members of her families houses with the cookies.  She felt it was best to prearrange this so no-one would get nervous answering the door to a big group of Adult, male, mentally challenged people.  Jeff said it was so funny to go Christmas caroling with them.  They had some strand of bells that apparently everyone wanted to ring.  All the clients were mad when they weren't getting a turn.  He said at one house one of the men loudly exclaimed, "It's my turn to ring the F...ing....bells!!!"  Although his language was much more colorful than mine.  It was a year he has never forgotten.  

4 comments:

Kim Burnham said...

this is hillarious! you crack me up sis:)

Kim Burnham said...

Hi Alli - Paul here (posting with Kim's account)...this Christmas memory explains a lot about Jeff's witty nature. I can IMAGINE it left a real impression on him. I only hope he can somehow pass on such a meaningful experience to Blake.

Natalie said...

Ha Ha Ha - I can't EVEN begin to tell you how much enjoyment and laughter I got out of that story. I seriously just laugh thinking about it. That's something out of a movie :)
LOVE your posts!

Kristin said...

That is one of the BEST christmas stories!! i will be laughing for a while tonight! :)