December 31st, 2015
Each year Christmas weaves the traditions of the past, the energy of the present, and the excitement of the future into one magical “Christmas feeling” and we give thanks for our wonderful families and lives. As Clarence reminded George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life, “each man’s life touches so many other lives.”
Every year our LARE Institute Colleagues celebrate Christmas with our Students and their children in a big WOW! Magic kind-of-way. There is a big party with gifts, cookies, pictures with Santa and his sleigh, candy canes, decorations, and Christmas trees. However, that Christmas WOW! Magic feeling comes when we work together with the goal of touching people’s lives and it stays with us all year long.
All of LARE’s Teachers, Employment Counselors, and Administrative Colleagues work together organizing toys and wrapping gifts. We transform classrooms into a magical winter wonderland, candy land, and Santa’s workshop and when we wrap the gifts for the children, we laugh and reminisce about our childhood memories. Some of us sing Christmas Carols and some of us ask the others to stop singing! We are a “work family” sharing a common goal of giving to the children for Christmas. When we witness each child say, “WOW” as they see our decorations or receive a toy from Santa, we feel so happy and our energy is restored.
It’s now time for us to take down all the decorations and pack them away for next year, but two things are for sure; One, we do not pack away our WOW! Magic spirit for helping others; and two, some of us will sing as we pack decorations away.
So, as you pack away your decorations sing, laugh, and tell stories but never pack away your WOW! Magic feeling!
