Christmas Elves

If you haven’t had a chance to meet a Christmas elf, let me introduce you to Claudia. By day, she works tirelessly for her clients in the real estate market. But throughout the year, she is stowing away stuffed animals, puzzles, coloring books, crayons, and a plethora of children’s gifts.

Then, along with her fellow elves, she loads up brightly wrapped presents and heads for the hallways of Seattle Children’s Hospital. In a season when children are happily singing Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells, other lie in hospital beds waiting to get better.


Claudia and her elf team bring wagons full of toys and distribute them to very sick little girls and boys. Parents look on with smiles and an elf often hands them a coffee gift card that lets them know others care about them here.




Christmas is a tough time to be in the hospital. But cheering littles ones is what Claudia knows best. Her own niece, Sophie, spent weeks and weeks at Children’s Hospital as she recovered from a heart transplant and numerous surgeries over the course of her young life. As Sophie entered her teen years, she knew how much these gifts mattered to young patients. Thus, a delightful Christmas tradition was born.


One time a little girl ran up to Sophie’s wagon full of stuffed animals, and with tender hands she picked out a soft furry dog. The girl’s own stuffie had been lost on the medical flight that had brought her here from Alaska. Now she had a cuddly friend to be with her again. Sophie knew that many children were far from home.




Sadly, Sophie lost her battle as her precious heart gave up, but Claudia and her family honor her memory by returning each year with mounds of children’s gifts. 


When it comes to Christmas elves, Claudia is my favorite. She works tirelessly to give children a dose of joy. If Claudia’s Christmas wish could come true it would be that just one more sick child would receive a gift. This is special medicine doctors can’t provide—but is 100% effective. 



Popular posts from this blog

Counting the Cost

Image
Something big is missing in this photo. Let me explain. Here in my hometown, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe prepared a parcel of land for a new hotel. Plenty of planning and architectural designs were evaluated. A gemstone of a hotel would be built across from the waterfront—a beautiful, restful place welcoming travelers. A true four-star facility.   They cleared the aging brick structures that had been fading away between Front Street and Railroad Avenue. Then the pandemic hit, shortages of labor and supplies, add in the costly inflation that followed. Everything stopped.   But this is what I admire about the Elwha Tribe: they have counted the cost. They didn’t want to move forward and take on tremendous debt. They would rather move slowly and be financially ready, rather than begin building and then letting it sit unfinished.   Counting the cost is something I should have done earlier in life when I didn’t know what high interest rates would do to our farming cost...
Read more

Summertime Music

Image
During the summer months, in an outside seating area, a delightfully painted piano sits with a sign that says, “Play me”.   It was just before 8 pm as I walked past the piano. My bus would be arriving soon, and I still have another ten minutes to walk before reaching my bus stop. But no one is around. It’s a beautiful warm evening. I pulled out the piano bench and sat down. The sun was behind me, and the piano keys reflected its glow. I had no music in front of me, only the songs within me. Notes drifted into the air.  In those brief moments, the magic of music and summer came together. Isn’t that how it is? Summertime music has a way of lingering in our minds and lasting a lifetime. As I stood and grabbed my things, I heard distant clapping—I guess I wasn’t alone, after all.
Read more

Planting Good Seeds

Image
Harvest will always depend on what we plant and how well we care for our crop.    Looking over my seed packets, I notice they’re different than the ones I planted before. One package is called Word seeds. The directions say that each of my words is a seed, so it cautions me to think before I speak. Harsh words don’t produce sweet, nourishing fruit. These seeds will require thoughtful care in the garden. I see some Volunteer seeds. Those extra hours I tend to fritter away are going to be planted in a useful project.   It looks like time isn’t wasted in this garden plot. Next are some Love seeds—the directions are interesting: get up each day and love others. No specifics are given—just do something for someone every day. The seed package shows pictures of smiling faces. I smile back. As I’m ready to head to the garden with my seeds, a package falls to the ground. I open it. Inside are the tiniest seeds I’ve ever seen—but the directions s...
Read more