Mahomet residents Tim and Evie Newman received an extra special Christmas gift Friday. After an afternoon of shopping, the couple arrived home with their four-year old son to see their house elegantly decorated by Christmas Decor by Kingdom Lawn Care.
The Newmans were nominated for Christmas Decor’sDecorated Family Program by family friend Karly Combest while Tim was deployed on his third deployment this summer. Combest worked with Evie during the Fisher Fair in July.
Christmas Decor has boosted the spirits of hundreds of military families through the Decorated Family Program for twelve years. Christmas Decor Corporate, located in Lubbock, Texas began the Decorated Family Program in 2003 after a franchisee attended a holiday dinner party, and began to consider all of the men and women overseas who would not be ale to celebrate with those they love. The program was created to thank our country’s soldiers for their dedication and support by decorating their family’s homes.
Now, local Christmas Decor franchises can choose to participate in the annual program.
“It’s our way of saying thanks,” Kingdom Lawn Care owner David Jones said. “We appreciate your sacrifice of being overseas. We appreciate (her) sacrifice of being home without (her) spouse. It’s also our way of saying you’re not alone. We as a community support you. We as a Christmas Decor corporate organization support you, love you and appreciate the sacrifices you’ve made.”
Tim returned from his third deployment at the end of October. He said this last deployment was especially hard because he was away from his four-year old son. During the first two deployments, it was just he and his wife. His son was born four days after he returned from his second deployment.
Christmas Decor by Kingdom Lawn Care based in Champaign has participated in the program for two years. When Jones received the call to decorate the Newman’s house, he drove by the property to access what could be done to show their sentiments.
Because he liked the architecture of the house, Jones decided to go with classic white lights, but he also decorated the bushes red, white and blue to recognize Tim’s service. The Jones family, who mows lawns during the summer and shovels snow during the winter, spent Friday afternoon decorating the Newman’s home.
The Newmans, who just thought they were going about a typical day of running errands, arrived home around 4:00 p.m. to see what the Jones family had done for them that day. Friends and family were also present.
“We are very grateful, and very appreciative of the amount of support our family has botten while I was gone,” Tim said.
Tim will return to work at the University of Illinois in the next few weeks. He is excited to spend the holidays surrounded by family.
