Trade ya an apple for that chocolate drop

Giving out fruit bags at Christmas has been a long standing tradition at almost every church in Knox Co. This morning, my son and I, went to our church to help out with filling the bags that we are giving out tomorrow morning. Several other church members showed up to help out as well. We had 125 bags to fill and we were finished in about 40 minutes. Not much time to take out of a Saturday morning to do this little deed of good will.

As far back as I can remember, the Christmas fruit bag has always held a special place in my heart. Perhaps it's because I'm such a traditionalist. I love to hear the stories from my parents and other folks about how things used to be when they were kids. There was always a fruit bag from the church. You could count on an apple, and orange, a stick of candy, some chocolate drops, and some nuts, either Brazil nuts or Walnuts. To hear the old folks talk, this was the highlight of their Christmas.

We didn't add nuts to our fruit bags this year. Ours consisted of one each of the following 10 items:

1. Red Apple

2. Yellow Apple

3. Banana

4. Orange

5. Tangerine

6. Pack of Big Red Gum

7. Pack of Juicy Fruit Gum

8. Bag of Chocolate Drops

9. Bag of Peppermint & Cinnamon Stick Candy

10. A Hershey Bar

Not a bad haul huh?

I also remember as a kid, my older sister, Pam, would try to convince me to trade her my chocolate drops for an apple. I can still hear her, "oh, these apples are delicious, they are a lot better than those old chocolate drops. And, this apple is a LOT bigger than those little chocolate drops." I can also still hear myself giving in, "oh, ok, yeah, that apple is a lot bigger, here ya go."....I suspect that there will be some bargaining going on tomorrow after church as well!

If you don't have a church home or if you are looking for a place to attend Christmas services, come on out tomorrow at 10:30 am. Our whole service will be focused on the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If nothing else, come out and get you some fruit! Just click on THIS link for directions and details.