I love the ministry of Operation Christmas Child.
Filling shoeboxes with gifts for children living in desparate situations - what a great way to get into the Christmas spirit!
Though it still feels like Christmas is a long way off, this is definitely one of my favourite family traditions.
Our church generally donates the Sunday School offering from Sept - Nov to Operation Christmas Child as well, so our kids are well familiar with this project!
Each year we pack one shoebox per child (Jacob isn't quite old enough to understand this, we'll do one for him starting next year).
I already purchased a bunch of school supplies to put in the boxes when we shopped for school in the States - such good deals!
Today I took all 4 kids (yes, another day off school - craziness!) to Dollarama to pick up the last of the items. It definitely would've been easier for me to pick them up when I was at Dollarama on Tuesday with just 2 kids, but I wanted the girls to be able to pick out the stuff themselves - they're much more invested in it that way, and they love doing it!
We pack for kids the "same" as our kids - so we have boxes for 3 girls ages 4, 6, 8. They all got virtually the same items. After I assembled the boxes (which I picked up from our church - very handy that they're doing the same project), each girl got to pack their own box. I had to help rearrange them so everything would fit - those stuffed animals can create some problems! LOL
Here's what we packed in each box....
markers
crayons
pencil crayons
paint set
pencils
pencil sharpener
erasers
writing booklet with cute butterflies on the cover
bag of marbles
small bouncy ball
stuffed animal or animal puppet (depending on what our girls picked)
hair ties
toothbrush
a homemade Christmas card from the girls
I think that's it - a lot of practical stuff, and a few fun things thrown in too. Hopefully they'll enjoy them! I know we had a blast putting it together.
3 comments:
That's fantastic! I'm sure you did have a blast puting it together. I love the feeling of giving too, there's little like it. I'm glad you were able to do this.
...Yes, it is like being kicked while you are down. I'm hoping to get in to the chiropractor in the next day or two now that hubby has another pay day coming up. I really hope it only takes one time. Not only for the money, but because I want to be able to get back to my house, it NEEDS ME!! I had just gotten it looking so good. Frustrating.
What a great family tradition! I am excited about the boys getting older and being able to create those special "service" traditions with them :)
oops - that was me, on my husbands account :)
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