Merry Christmas Dane and Bridget

This year for Christmas Scott and I had Dane and Bridget's name. We thought about many different service projects and decided to do one that was coordinated by my church. Every year the church has a program called, "Christ Child Project". The goal is to get at least 100 parish members to sign up to sponsor a child in need. Each member is given the gender and age of a child and asked to go out and spend $100 on that child in the form of pajamas, jeans, shirts, socks, underwear, toys, books, etc. Once all the items are purchased, they are brought to the church's auditorium where they are sorted, priced (prices are displayed as 1/4 of the retail price) and placed on tables. Once everything is out and organized the auditorium is opened up to a pre-selected number of families who are given "$100" (think similar to Monopoly money) and are allowed to go in and buy gifts for their younger family members.

As one can imagine, there are many stages throughout the duration of the program where help is needed. Scott and I decided to attend the evening where priced items were sorted and displayed on tables... the final step before opening the doors to poorer members of the community.

I can't tell you the wave of emotion I felt as I walked into this large auditorium and began helping fill it with beautiful hats, mittens, shoes, boots, sweaters, jeans, underwear, jammies, socks, coats, trucks, baby dolls, toy strollers, stuffed animals, doll houses, books, bikes, games, and more. The place was wall to wall stacked and stuffed with items that any young child would love. I felt so much love in the auditorium that night and sure, sappy Abbie, I was on the verge of tears nearly the entire time. I just couldn't stop thinking about how much these little children were going to love these toys and how members of the Parish had been so generous in their donations. I really felt that this is what Christmas should be about, especially for those of us who have been given so much. I was reading an interview with Maya Angelou a couple days ago in which she told the interviewer that her grandmother had always told her, "Sister, when you get, give. When you learn, teach." When you get... give...

We took two photographs but unfortunately one was with my phone and it got deleted. :( I'm sad because it was a larger view of Scott and the room. Oh well. So here is a photo of me folding clothes and trying to make them look presentable. :)

Merry Christmas Dane and Bridget. I hope you have enjoyed reading what we did for you. :)