Janessa & Hope's Christmas Stockings

Last year I had a really hard time deciding if I was going to put Janessa's Christmas stocking up with the rest of ours.  I just didn't know if I could bear to see it empty on Christmas Day.  I had an idea about reading the story "The Christmas Orange" to our family and then I challenged everyone to try and do acts of kindness and service and everytime they did they would get to put a little piece of paper with a heart sticker on it into Janessa's stocking.  We filled her stocking up with our acts of kindness and service!  On Christmas Eve I placed a chocolate orange in her stocking and Christmas Day we dumped out all of the heart stickers so we could visually see how we had filled up her stocking with Love and we shared pieces of the chocolate orange.  It brought a lot of peace to a really hard holiday for me.

This year I cried hanging up Hope's Angel Baby Christmas Stocking next to Janessa's.  We decided again to do our fill the Christmas Stockings with acts of kindness and service, only this time every act of kindness and service is worth double stickers so you can put 1 in Janessa's Stocking and 1 in Hope's Stocking.  My heart has been so touched as I have watched my children excitedly doing acts of service so they can put the stickers in their little Angel Sisters Stockings so that neither one of them will be empty on Christmas.  I find myself each day thinking of things that I can do to make sure that I am helping to fill their stockings also.  It has brought me joy watching my children's surprise when I do one of their chores for them.

I have loved seeing everyone's ideas on how they honor and remember their angel babies at Christmas.  I thought I would take a couple of days and share things that I did last year and things that I am doing this year to remember Janessa and Hope.  So, the next week or so I will be posting my different ideas.

Here is The Christmas Orange Story that we use for their Christmas Stockings:

The Christmas Orange  

                                            

Once there was a little girl who came to live in an orphanage in Denmark.  As Christmas time grew near, all of the other children began telling the little girl about the beautiful Christmas tree that would appear in the huge downstairs hall on Christmas morning. After their usual, very plain breakfast, each child would be given their one and only Christmas gift; small, single orange.
 

Now the headmaster of the orphanage was very stern and he thought Christmas to be a bother. So on Christmas Eve, when he caught the little girl creeping down the stairs to catch a peek at the much-heard-of Christmas tree, he sharply declared that the little girl would not receive her Christmas orange because she had been so curious as to disobey the rules. The little girl ran back to her room broken-hearted and crying at her terrible fate."
 

"The next morning as the other children were going down to breakfast, the little girl stayed in her bed. She couldn't stand the thought of seeing the others receive their gift when there would be none for her."

"Later, as the children came back upstairs, the little girl was surprised to be handed a napkin. As she carefully opened it, there to her disbelief was an orange all peeled and sectioned."
 

"How could this be?" she asked.
 

"It was then that she found how each child had taken one section from their orange and given it to her so that she, too, would have a Christmas orange."

What an example of the true meaning of Christmas those orphan children displayed that Christmas morning.

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. 

Mosiah 2:17

Another story about service that I really like is called Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck. In this story a little boy gets up really early on Christmas morning and does all the farm chores for his Dad as a Christmas present.

Hugs,

:`) Shauna :`(

:)Janessa & Hope's Mommy:)