I don't know how long I have been putting together an Operation Christmas Child shoe box. I always thought it was so fun to pack a box. Then a few years ago I started packing them with the youth as a youth leader. To see the students bring their boxes to youth group and show the leaders everything they decided to put in them was special... little did I know that this year would be my favorite shoe box packing year yet.
When we gave the Bigs a shoe box to fill we explained to them that we were going to go to the store to buy special things for a little boy and a little girl that don't have/get any toys or special treats. We explained to them that when we were at the store we were not going to get anything for them BUT only for our shoe boxes that we will be sending to the little boy and girl.
We asked M & G who wanted to fill the box for the boy and who wanted to fill it for the girl. G took the boy box and M took the girl.
They picked out some colors (crayons). Actually they put ALL of the crayons in their boxes. This was the first item they picked out and they hadn't yet understood that we were getting more than one type of thing. They tried to fill the whole box with the crayons. It was really cute. They were putting them in so fast that I couldn't keep up with trying to take them out and explain to them that we should go find more items.
Mickey Mouse playing cards.
Checking out what was in his brothers box.
Finger paints.
Pencils.
M looks so happy here.
M picked out some doll accessories. He didn't think about needing a doll to go with it so Mama helped him out there. They also picked out some of the books and coloring books that were next to the doll accessories.
The boys did great with not asking or expecting to take home anything... until we got to this isle. There were monster trucks, semi trucks, bull dozers, dump trucks, tractors, motorcycles, etc. Although they did ask to get some of the toys they asked in the sweetest ways. "This is for my boy and this one is for me. This is for my girl and this one is for me". We gently reminded them that they weren't getting any toys today. That todays trip was just for the special boy and girl. They pretty much happily put back the ones they picked out for themselves and put the ones they chose for their boxes in the boxes.
Some how we ended up waiting until the last night (what else is new). Since we didn't have time to go back home to pack our boxes we sat in the van and filled them up there. When they were all filled the boys gave their boxes squeezes and kisses and Hubs brought them into the church to drop them off.
I was so proud of my boys. This is going to be a great tradition.
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