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Today is La Pequena Navidad for us. For many years, our family has located Hispanic families who aren't going to have a Christmas and, with the help of our students and friends, made Christmas for them. These are the people who don't go to every social services organization around so that their kids have a massive holiday; these aren't the families who know how to milk the system. They don't even know that there IS a system.
These are usually the recent immigrants, the ones who live in housing that's so hidden and broken down that the authorities never condemn it. The housing with the sewage pipes that break and the windows that are continually broken by the creeps around them who don't want to deal with foreign-born neighbors.
We'll leave in a couple of hours and our day will have a lot of hassles--presents will come unwrapped on the trip, name tags will fall off, some recipients may not be home, we'll be in some scary neighborhoods. Tempers may get short.
But we know from years past that it'll be the most rewarding day of the season, the day we talk about all year. The day that we meet a lot of new friends and where our own children gain a new respect for what we have.
Me gusta mucho La Pequena Navidad.
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