Hello and greetings on the day before the night before Christmas! If you are like me, you constantly remind your children to be “grateful” for what they have. But until this week, I knew they didn’t really understand what I meant. So, what happened this week? They did their first real charity work for some underprivileged kids!

They not only gathered and paid for some toys, they actually got to deliver them. It was an absolute blast. We saw where they lived, watched them open their gifts and had breakfast with a few of them. Being in their world certainly made a difference in ours this season. My oldest certainly got more out of it than the younger ones from a learning perspective, but I guess we have to start somewhere with all of them. Even the smallest still had fun.

It reminded me of a famous businessman, Robert G Allen, when he was learning to be successful. He said most people wanted to tell him how to “find gold”. Which really means “be a success” in business. But he wasn’t looking for someone to tell him how to mine gold, he wanted someone to take him to the gold!

I hope we took the kids where the real gold was this Christmas. In the joyous eyes of others.

My very best this Holiday Season!

Brett A Johnston
www.closekids.com