Of course Connor loves fire trucks so we also went for his enjoyment. I was excited to see him pass out his cookies to the firemen. We left a basket of them at the front desk and took some small baggies to pass out. First, we stood in a long line with all the kids waiting to see Santa. The fire fighters passed out cookies, punch and coffee and over by Santa was a huge pile of toys. It really touched us to see all the effort they put into the event (which was a fundraiser for them!). We bought a raffle ticket to help with that.
Connor got to pass out a few bags of cookies while we stood in line. A few guys asked Nick and I if the cookies were really for them. They looked totally surprised. A few just got enormous grins on their faces. It was really fun seeing the interaction. :)
Oh, the excitement! Big red truck Daddy!!
Santa who? Connor was far more captivated by the firetruck all lit up!
We gave this nice fireman a bag of cookies. And he was all "um, I have cookies for you!" :)
The captain's office. Connor really loved that sign on his door!
Finally got one good picture of a cookie delivery. It was beyond precious watching little Connor toddle up to these big fireman and hand them his bag of goodies. It absolutely melted me!
HA! Bet you never thought you'd see this picture! We don't "do" Santa and Nick is so adamant about it, he makes us go way out of our way to avoid the Santa hoopla at the mall. :) So I was seriously surprised he allowed Connor to go up. I think he really wanted Connor to be able to get a toy and also maybe not offend anyone? At any rate, I had to chuckle because Connor had no idea who this old guy with a beard was. But at least he didn't freak out! :)
A teddy bear and finally a chance to climb up onto the firetruck!
Inside the truck. Nick sat in there chatting with a fireman for a long time. They are such nice guys and fun to talk to. Like many people in this town, some of the firemen were veterans so they and Nick had a lot to chat about.
Connor with the fire captain.
Our fire department is 80% volunteers, 20% paid. Incredible! Most volunteer on top of a full time job, but you can see they love what they do. These guys definitely deserve our appreciation.
They work 24/7 so they'll be here on Christmas while most of us are at home enjoying gifts, family, and food. Since we'll be alone on Christmas, we're thinking about making something special to take to the station and say hello and Merry Christmas. We'll do something, I'm just not sure what yet.
These are the kind of things we hope to focus on with Connor during the holidays. I love the Christmas fun of opening presents and having a special meal, but we also want to reach out to others and teach Connor how important this is. It's very cool having Connor at an age now where he can actively participate. I'm not sure how much of it he actually gets right now, but I'm sure it's good for him.
We struggle with wanting to help, yet not having much money. It probably cost us all of $2 to bake sugar cookies and put them in these bags. What really matters is giving your time and spreading a little cheer and thankfulness. When we handed cookies out, we made sure to point out to Connor that we were thanking the firemen for all their hard work and we told them we appreciated their service to the community. This is something we can do for those that serve all year long, like police and the nurses and doctors in ERs. Visiting local retirement homes or children in the hospital is another idea. Even pet shelters. Little ones like Connor really do a lot to brighten someones day. I think often about retirement homes where elderly folks might be alone during the holidays and would love a visit from children. We'd like to try doing that sometime too.
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