Caroling Take Two: Brownies Take to the "Streets"

To celebrate the end of our first semester as Brownies, we had a little Christmas Party with the Girl Scouts complete with Door to Door Caroling at the houses near to our school.  The plan was to have fun inside at the party first by making Melted Snowman Ornaments, followed by a small ornament gift exchange between the girls, and then caroling.  Adding to the excitement was the fact that it was the week before Christmas and the final week of school before break.  These girls were hyped!

Thankfully, the weather was perfect for our Caroling; just a little chilly without a touch of snow on the ground. No worries about slipping and sliding between the houses.  One of Miss A's friends' and fellow Brownies lives just a block away from the school making her house the perfect first stop.  It was warm and inviting and with two other sisters who watched and cheered us on.

Now this is when the story takes a little bit of a strange turn.  Being the wise leader, I thought we'd stop at about two or three more houses before returning to school.  Just enough to give the girls a taste for spreading Christmas Cheer without wearing ourselves out.  Our second stop was right by the school (their backyard is the kindergarten playground) and the house was all decorated for Christmas. Lights were on inside the house and they had lights and Christmas Displays all over the front porch.  When I rang the doorbell, a young man in his twenties answered and when I asked if he'd mind if a bunch of Girl Scouts sang a few Christmas Carols he told me to "wait a minute."  I waited a few moments and then he returned and said "No Thank You" and slammed the door on my face.

Really!!!!!

Who turns down a bunch of little girls who just want to sing Christmas Carols?

We were shocked.  I'm just grateful that the next house we went too was a much better experience for the the girls. In fact at this house, the lady regretted that she couldn't invite the girls in for cookies, but she was recovering from a cold and didn't want to get us all sick.  Her smile and dancing along to the carols made us all smile a little bigger and encouraged us to go for one more house.  At our final house, they were having a little gathering and there were a few little girls who loved watching our "girls" sing.  The little girls were dancing and singing along and the Brownies were in awe of how cute the babies and toddlers were.  A perfect way to end this evening.

I think we all learned a little life lesson caroling this night.  You can put up all the Christmas Decorations and have all the lights on so that your home looks warm and inviting, but if you aren't ready to welcome a visitor (maybe Jesus himself) the decorations are all just sugar coating of a cold home and life.  How I pray that our family will be the warm welcome to whoever graces our door and that our hearts will be warm and inviting to let Jesus in this Christmas.  I don't want to be the one to shut door saying no!