HERE WE GO A-CAROLING!

Our Sunday School class has picked a Sunday night close to Christmas each year, ever since I can remember, to go caroling at nursing homes and homes of church members who are elderly shut-ins, have health issues or have lost a family member to death during the year. Our family joined in this activity when our children were in elementary school. It has been a wonderful tradition to have at Christmastime.

We have a few ladies that I can't remember when we didn't have them on our list to carol to. At the beginning, I guess we didn't have quite as many older people in our congregation so we just went to the homes of some of the church leaders. Now the average age of our church membership is a lot older than it was some 25 years ago.
At the beginning a couple of the young ladies in our class would have a marathon candy making event and they provided all of the food that we ate after caroling. Years later, we began having too many carolers to gather in a home so we started meeting at the church and everyone pitched in by bringing finger foods to share. As our children grew up and left our community, the number of participants dropped off. But there were still some of us who loved it so much that we continued every year. Handyman and I decided it was more cozy to have the after carol gathering in a home rather than in the fellowship hall at church so we began a new tradition of hosting this in our home. We really enjoy getting our house decorated and ready for all the guests. We've also bought extra dishes and cups so we don't have to use disposable plates, glasses and cups. Handyman also really gets into the food aspect ---he makes sausage balls, meatballs, country ham and biscuits and has started buying shrimp too. I made a couple of kinds of Christmas cookies this year.
This year was very special for us. Our daughter came back to carol with us, along with our son-in-law and grandchildren. Our 5 year granddaughter, Kate, had a wonderful time. Before we left the house, one of our friends tied jingle bells to Kate's shoe laces and I gave her a jingle bell necklace that had been bought when her mother was just a few years older than her. It was so funny watching her trying to get those bells on the shoes to jingle while she shook the necklace bell. She knew the words to almost ever Christmas carol that we sang. I noticed a lot of people watching her and they were amazed at how well she knew the songs. Our 3 year old granddaughter, Gabby, is very shy and she wasn't real thrilled to be around so many people (there were 37 of us) and she kept pulling her hood over her face so no one could see her. But she didn't whine and fuss. She was very good, but just wanted to be carried so she didn't have to mix with everyone else. We were concerned with how 1 year old, Nate, would do. Back in the day with our kids, we didn't have to worry with car seats. We just loaded the kids up and took off. Nate (and Gabby) had to be strapped in between all of the stops, even if they were only a mile apart. Kate can strap herself in, so she wasn't a problem at all. Nate got tired and sleepy, but he did so well. I was so proud of him. He was a real trooper! We had several other grandchildren join us this year. The kids just make it so much more fun. After about two hours of lots of ins and outs we returned home to enjoy all of the food that we had fixed and the others had brought in.
For me, it was the most fun I had had caroling since we first started caroling with our kids.
I am so thankful that the "Potpourri" class has continued this tradition for all of these years and that our kids and grandkids have all been able to be a part of it.
From "Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the New Born King" to "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" to "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," it is wonderful to be a Christian and be able to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!