Adopt a Family- Sugar-y Sweet Gifts!

After lots of planning, shopping and wrapping, our family was finally ready to drop off our gifts to our adopted Christmas family through our church.

When shopping for presents, we spotted this fun pink candy holiday paper at Target, and decided this would be our gift packaging theme. 

Our family (number 31) has a mom, dad and a five year old girl.  We were tasked with purchasing a small gift for the mother and father, and a clothing item and toy for the child, along with stockings for each family member.

Here are the details of what we got/made:

 

For the dad, we decorated a simple candy green stocking by gluing on colored buttons to spell out dad.  To stuff the stocking, we filled it with socks, gloves, toothpaste, deodarnt spray and some snacks.

For the mom, we decorated a purple stocking with bright buttons as well.  We filled her stocking with candy shaped soap, a cupcake lotion/bodywash set, socks, hairties, a toothbrush and toothpaste.

For Gissele, our five year old girl, we decorated a pink stocking.  We weren't able to fit her name on the top with buttons, so we used stick on felt sparkly letters and spelled her name on the stocking instead, and added a small piece of felt and a button in a candy shape to tie it in with the other stockings.  We filled her stocking with socks, headbands, a zipper pouch, candy shaped soap, hairties and candy themed jewelry, along with some small toys.

For the gifts, we wrapped them in our candy paper, tied them with green and white curling ribbon, and attached each with a hand made name tag and decorated each package with a candy shaped ornament. 

For Gissele, Maddy picked out a set of horses by Melissa and Doug (the girl had requested horses), along with some pink pajamas with horses on them, and a unicorn plush blanket set....all super cute.

For the Mom, we found some warm holiday pajamas, and for the Dad, we found a nicer package of socks and a nut gift set. 

We also included a card, with similar colors and candy featured on the card as well, along with a gift card to a local grocery store.

We were able to fit everything into one large plastic tub, label it clearly, and sealed it up before dropping it off this evening.

All done!  What task will our family take on next as we prepare our home and hearts for Christmas?

Giving Back- our family's holiday giving plans

Our family has a favorite "pet" charity in our hometown, the Hope House .  Hope House is a small organization, run out of an old rectory on one of our town's Catholic Churches.   It is a simple "business" plan, they take in donations from parishioners and community members, and distribute the items during certain hours, allowing individuals to "shop" for free for what they need.  This includes clothing, household goods, and basic toiletries and food.

My daughter and I started volunteering at the Hope House after driving by it each day and first becoming donors, purchasing items on their "most needed" list on their outside whiteboard.  We eventually started volunteering one Saturday a month, sorting and organizing goods.  This past Friday, we were back at Hope House sorting, and my little girl made it three straight hours sorting out the books and toys...I'm so proud of her.

So this year, for the holidays, we are adopting a family identified by Hope House for Christmas.  We will get to purchase gifts for another father, mother and a five year old girl, and I'm looking forward to letting my daughter be involved heavily in the process to help keep her focus off of only"what I want from Santa."

Through my employer, we also "adopt" the children of parents in one of the Drug Courts, and will be able to provide them with small gifts, and a party with Santa to allow the parents and children some special and happy time together (many of the kids are still in foster or relative care while their parents work on chemical dependency issues).

I'm looking forward to the shopping, wrapping and praying for the recipients of our gifts, and hope that they are able to see the love of Christ through our anonymous actions.

What are you doing this year to "give back" with your kids and set the giving back example?