Operation Christmas Child 2012 Edition

Packing Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes is a tradition in our house and the kids absolutely love it!  Our kids know that this is likely not only the only Christmas gift these kids will get, but could be the very first gift of any kind that they've ever received.  If you've never seen some of the YouTube videos showing the reactions of these kids, you need to check it out. (Here's one).  Getting to go along on a trip where they hand out those boxes would be an amazing experience, don't you think?  I think that one's going on my bucket list.

Each of our kids packed a shoebox for a child their age/gender. 

Here's some of the things (that I remember!) that we packed in our girls boxes - facecloth, box of soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, pencils, pens, pencil crayons, fun erasers, notebook, bracelets, hair ties and clips, sunglasses, blurp, hard candy and a stuffed animal.

The boy box included all the gender neutral stuff from the girl boxes, and then instead of the girlie things we added little toy animals, a Hot Wheels car, a monster truck and some more stuff that I can't remember right now!

Each of our kids made a card for the box recipient to receive along with their gifts.  Unfortunately, this year I've been slacking on getting our family Christmas photo card done so we couldn't put that in this time.

Yup, a good time was had by all!