Spirit of Christmas

Every year, people at Loma Linda U. Children's Hospital organize something called "the Spirit of Christmas for a selected group of children and their families. The children chosen for this are usually very ill, and their families are usually very poor. To help them have a happy Christmas, volunteers buy presents, wrap them, and deliver them to the children and their families. We joined for the "wrapping party" and wrapped all the gifts for one child.

Our wrapping party volunteers
The lobby of the Children's hospital is very festive. Below is a disply of gingerbread houses decorated by children who were patients at the hospital.

Here's a shot of the medical center at night. Mainly, we wanted all you non-California folks to see how Californians decorate Palm Trees for Christmas! The children's hospital portion is to the left of the pictured area, but Stephanie does work on the 5th floor of the circular towers, like you see here.