http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/
Several weeks ago the children went with me to my church and in Sunday School they were given a shoebox to fill with gifts for a child in a foreign country who may have never received any gifts before in their entire life. The kids were very curious and excited about filling these boxes for a poor child. Ruby could hardly fathom never receiving any gifts before "Not even one birthday gift, Grandma!" We talked about it during lunch and thought of things they might like to put into the boxes. We decided to do one for a boy and one for a girl in the 5-9 year old range, so they could find things they themselves might enjoy. The instructions also suggested hygiene items, such as toothbrush, toothpaste and soap.
I could tell they were both really thinking about this idea, because hours later Carson came upstairs to find me and said "Grandma, we need to get pencils and paper for the box because they might like to practice writing their letters!"
So yesterday I took them shopping to fill the boxes. We took the empty boxes with us so they knew how much to get and couldn't select something that was too large. They carefully carried the boxes into the store and put them into cart and we were on our way shopping. It was a real joy to do this project with them. Other people in the store said they were shopping for the same thing -- My church is a drop off center for these boxes for our area, and I'm told that last year there were over 8000 collected at just my church alone.
As we were driving to the store we talked about what countries the boxes might go to. (You can sign up on line and learn what country your box ends up in). Carson said "I would like mine to go to Paris France, or maybe England." I suggested Africa, to which Ruby replied "Silly Grandma, there are only wild animals in Africa! Maybe my box could go to a giraffe!"
Here they are putting their gifts onto the belt for the checker to ring them up.
Carson didn't want them to go too quickly!
They were so very proud of their individual boxes
We wrote letters and put a photograph of them in the letter.
The funniest thing happened with Carson. I got some extra prints of their 5 year old professional photos and was going to let them select which one they wanted to send. Carson got almost teary-eyed and said "I don't want to send one of those photos!"
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I don't want to give them one of my pictures. I may want it"
"Buddy, I can make more"
"NO"
So I let it go. Later Ruby was talking about the photo she wanted to send and Carson was just listening. Then Carson was talking about putting one of his own toys in the box, and I told him that they really prefer new toys and not used ones.
To that he said "Well, then why do we put a photograph in the box? They are not new. I've already looked at it!"
Oh my goodness, it took everything for Katharine and me to not laugh out loud. Such reasoning from that little guy. In the end, he selected a picture of just himself that he included. Ruby picked a picture of her with Carson and their Daddy.
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