Our Senior Citizen Friends

Sitting at my desk one day a few weeks ago, the phone rings. 

A elderly lady, with a strong German accent calls.

“I faz jus vandering if you could take us on dat bus again to see dos lights?”

Ohmygosh.

She is referring to one of our very first 12 Days of Giving, three years ago. We picked up a bus load of senior citizens and drove them past the lights in Central Park in Spruce Grove, stopped to grab hot chocolate from Perks, and then drove out to see the lights display at Castro Raceway. We sang Christmas carols, chatted, ate cookies from Cake Affair. 

This sounds like it was a perfect night, but what I remember is that the bus windows fogged up so bad that they turned to ice and by the time we were on the highway to Devon we couldn’t see out the windows AT ALL!! 

Trevor and I were walking up and down the bus aisle trying to scrape off viewing patches for everyone, with our credit cards lol. The patches immediately just iced up again. Five year old Scarlett suggested that everyone just lick their window because that worked for her, and it tasted good too!

I thought this had made the night terrible but Emma, our German friend that was calling now, had found our phone number to ask for us to do it again. 

“Ve jus had so much fun and some of dese people never get out ov here”.

How do you say no to that call lol?!?!

We couldn’t!! 

So tonight, we picked up 47 senior citizens, drove past the beautiful lights in Central Park, picked up our Perks hot chocolate, ate Christmas tree cookies that our 12 year old Olive made yesterday, and headed to St. Matthew’s Church in Stony Plain to listen to the Festival of Christmas Carols organized by the Stony Plain Rotary Club.

They gave us front row seats!! 

The Stony Plain Rotarians were waiting for the bus to pull up and they not only greeted all of our friends with Christmas wishes but they helped them all get off of the bus and up the stairs into the church. 

We listened to the beautiful music put on by local choirs, children groups, and the Rotary Club sing-a-long. 

We were treated to snacks and tea in the basement afterwards, and a warm bus ride home (we rented the Spruce Grove Saints bus… so amazing!).

As a thank you from our seniors, they all brought out a huge amount of donations for the Parkland Food Bank.

Thank you Emma for calling.

You gave your beautiful friends a festive evening… and no one had to lick a window!

Merry Christmas!

~ Amanda & Trevor Wilhauk