christmas in japan & hong kong

in japan, they visit the sick for christmas. in hong kong, they send out elaborate christmas cards. we decided to mix the two and take christmas cards to a nursing home. we went the boise samaritan off state street. ryan's dad's calling is to do the sacrament for them on sundays. we had such an amazing experience.

this was grandma trying to explain to the kids why the grandmas and grandpas look and act the way they do. none of my kids have ever really experienced an elderly grandparent like the ones in the nursing home.

 they were very excited to find the fish

 i don't have pictures of it, but we handed out 20 christmas cards that we had all signed and we sang 3 christmas songs. this was everyone on our way out.

thanks grandma & papa head for coming with us and helping our family have a wonderful time. we talked in the car to the kids about how we felt while we were there and when we left. we talked about how we could feel the spirit and that we are doing what jesus would do. we are going to make a new years resolution as a family to visit the nursing home once a month. it was so fun to see how happy some of them got when we handed them a christmas card.

there was one lady in particular that reached up and grabbed maggie's hand. she held it for a moment. i never really thought anything of it until a lady at another table said she had never done that before. she can't talk (i think she suffered from a stroke) and she wouldn't touch anyone. the lady said that she had been there for 3 years and that was the first time. i told her thank you for telling us and that we should let her nurse know about it. she responded with, "nurse? i'm calling her husband, he'll never believe it." she said she was almost in tears she was so happy to see this lady respond to maggie.

what a joyous occasion.