Excitement comes in small packages
December 7, 2011This Christmas season, we have been working pretty hard at trying to enjoy the season. We do little projects every day to attempt to be happy as a family. As many of you know, my parents are serving a mission for my church in Uganda, Africa. We aren’t sending a care package this year for Christmas, it is way too expensive (over $100 to send 5 pounds gah!), and we were able to see them just over a month ago, even if the circumstances stunk. Anyway, so this morning, my mom sent an email out to all of us…
“If any grandchildren would like to work for their parents and donate some money we will give gifts to some children from them. A few dollars translates into a lot here. Have the children put the money in an envelope to give to us when we return, and tell us how much to spend. What fun.”
I can’t tell you how excited I am about this idea! I was given some extra work making Christmas Cards, so I have a little extra cash. I now know exactly what we are doing with some of it. I am sure my kids will jump on board, carry extra firewood for a quarter? Pick up the extra toys in your room? Empty the small garbage cans? I think that they will be excited at the idea of helping out the Ugandan children who have so little. My mom has frequently seen the children playing with an old tire and a stick for lack of anything else… imagine the surprise on Christmas morning when a little girl gets a doll from my daughter… To lose myself in service projects, that is what I need. I just know it.
What an awesome idea! How wonderful.
We put together a shoebox for a boy in a Hungarian orphanage (my friend was organizing gifts for the whole orphanage so no one was left out.) My two had a great time selecting items and really trying to imagine what this boy we’d never met would like best. It was good for all of us.
That is awesome! A few years back, when I was working too, we picked some angels off the angel tree. My kids had THE BEST TIME picking things out for kids they didn’t even know. It was wonderful!! I think I need to think up something like that again! Enjoy doing just an incredible thing for and with your family!
That is so great! I guess that would be like the year I volunteered to “shop” for Christmas packages at the Salvation Army. They have a warehouse full of toys, books, clothes, etc., all organized by age and sex. The “shoppers” would pick up a shopping list made by the parent of a needy child, and we would create a child-specific package based on the list, then go back and get another list — as many as we had time to do on a lunch break from work. It feels really good to be a part of something like that.
This is awesome!!! What a fun project!