My Twelve Days Of CHRISTmas

On the FIRST day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…A child free from bondage

On the SECOND day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On THIRD the day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On the FOURTH day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…Four walls for a family in crisis
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On the day FIFTH of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…The Five from the Texan “Wild Bunch”
…Four walls for a family in crisis.
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On the SIXTH day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…Six shoeboxes for OCC
…The Five from the Texan “Wild Bunch”.
…Four walls for a family in crisis.
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On the SEVENTH day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…a Seven year old wishing for a Bible
…Six shoeboxes for OCC
…The Five from the Texan “Wild Bunch”.
…Four walls for a family in crisis.
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On the EIGHTH day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…Eight sponsor children
…a Seven year old wishing for a Bible
…Six shoeboxes for OCC
…The Five from the Texan “Wild Bunch”.
…Four walls for a family in crisis.
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On the NINETH day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…A Nine yr old “Explorer” in Carolina
…Eight sponsor children
…a Seven year old wishing for a Bible
…Six shoeboxes for OCC
…The Five from the Texan “Wild Bunch”.
…Four walls for a family in crisis.
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On the TENTH day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…Ten boxes of school supplies to Afghanistan
…A Nine yr old “Explorer” in Carolina
…Eight sponsor children
…a Seven year old wishing for a Bible
…Six shoeboxes for OCC
…The Five from the Texan “Wild Bunch”.
…Four walls for a family in crisis.
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage


On the ELEVENTH day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…an Eleven item meal for a needy family
…Ten boxes of school supplies to Afghanistan
…A Nine yr old “Explorer” in Carolina
…Eight sponsor children
…a Seven year old wishing for a Bible
…Six shoeboxes for OCC
…The Five from the Texan “Wild Bunch”.
…Four walls for a family in crisis.
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage

On the TWELFTH day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…
…Twelve writing buddies
…an Eleven item meal for a needy family.
…Ten boxes of school supplies to Afghanistan
…A Nine yr old “Explorer” in Carolina
…Eight sponsor children
…a Seven year old wishing for a Bible
…Six shoeboxes for OCC
…The Five from the Texan “Wild Bunch”.
…Four walls for a family in crisis.
…A Three year old baby elephant.
…Two “Pirates” plotting
…And a child free from bondage


*Samaritan’s Purse http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

*David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/

*Salvation Army Angel Tree child

* Child sponsorship programs through:
Compassion International http://www.compassion.com/
Kenya Kids In Need http://www.galileeschool.org/
His Hands For Haiti http://www.hishandsforhaiti.org/

*Through Army friends sponsoring a school

http://thecsiproject.com/2012/11/28/time-to-link-up-for-the-everything-christmas-challenge/

It's The Thought That Counts?

It is said that “it’s the thought that counts”. And it’s usually said when an act is done or a gift is given that is totally fouled up, rushed, ill-prepared or otherwise insufficient.

“It’s the thought that counts”.

Oh, really??

Over the past 4 weeks I have processed two gift-giving projects that have had many people participating. Both projects have had extremely specific written rules on what cannot be given and how the packages were to be prepared.

In other words, a semi-trained monkey could have done it correctly.

I have processed almost 500 parcels to date and only about 10% have done it right as far as what’s inside, how it’s packed and when it’s to be turned in. And I have seen some very disturbing “gifts”. Highly used (stained, torn) clothing, broken toys, huge bags/boxes that were nearly empty, items that were on the “NO” list and therefore had to be removed, and so on and so on.

It’s the thought that counts?

If that is the case, I’d really like to know what certain people are thinking. Were they thinking? Are they just dumb and don’t get it? Are they arrogant and think the rules don’t apply to them? Are they brown-nosers who are trying to make folks think they are a big spender as they carried it in?

But just as I’m ready to go screaming into the night, I will come across a parcel that reminds me of why I fool with this in the first place. A box that is so lovingly prepared that you know that the sender really cares about this person far away who will receive this gift. A person they don’t even know, yet much time and thought was spent to make a perfect gift.

THAT is the thought that counts.

Time to pack the boxes!

Today was box drop off day for the Christmas Child shoeboxes. This year we collected 345 – 6 of which were mine.

We made it a bit easier on ourselves this year. Instead of stuffing hundreds of individual shoeboxes of all shapes and sizes into our truck and Brenda’s van, we rented one of those small U-Haul trucks. And we got some cartons from the drop-off point to put the shoeboxes in. Twenty three cartons on a dolly were easier to deal with than all those little boxes!

Himself and I had our “packing party” last night. After some hot chocolate and a donut, we sorted the items we’d collected thru the year. For the shoebox we use a boot box size plastic container. This year, instead of lining them with wrapping paper we lined them with extra large bandanas. The bright colors are festive and there is absolutely no waste as every part of the parcel can be reused many times.
To the box we added a new T shirt, a cap, some toys (kid meal prizes, cars, ball, etc), hygiene items (toothbrushes, tooth paste, soap, tweezers, nail clippers), a pair of ‘cool’ sunglasses, music makers (a plastic recorder and a harmonica), school supplies (paper, pencils, sharpener, erasers), hard candy and a couple small stuffed toys. And it was topped off with a Christmas card and a photo of us.

Guess Who Came to Dinner?

We had a bit of excitement last night in the form of an unwanted guest. Caught this old possum sneaking around in the back yard, probably trying to steal Tsion’s dinner. Mr Possum was quickly shoved into a large dog crate and given a change of address out to a wooded area a long way from our house!

While possum are interesting from the scientific point of view…the only marsupial in the US, the land mammal with the most teeth in the US (50 of them), and of course the way they “play possum” – feigning death to make predators seek a more appetizing meal, they certainly do not win any points in the attractive or intelligent scale. Nope…they are just ugly and dumb!

A few year back I went with some girlfriends to dinner at a restaurant here in Tennessee, and one of my friends brought a guest who was from New York City. Somehow the dinner topic turned to...rats (don’t ask me how they got on that subject)! The guest exclaimed in her Bronx accent, “I don’t care what you say about New York City having big rats, they are NOTHING compared to what I have seen since moving to the South!"

This stopped all the conversation. We were trying to figure out what she was talking about since the South is not known for large rats—whom this person said ‘were everywhere’. All of a sudden I realized she was talking about...possums.

Much laughter followed.

We tried to explain what a possum was, but all she said while shaking her head (and I quote), “I don’t care WHAT you call them down here, they are just a damn big RAT!”

Hmmmm...she might just have had a point.

It's Starting to Feel a Lot Like Christmas...

...which means I'm working on my Operation Christmas Child boxes!

If you don't know about Operation Christmas Child, check out:
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/OCC.asp?MPGID=1

Every year I do six boxes and I start collecting at the beginning of the year with the Christmas clearance sales! From there, I load up on whatever clearance sales and loss leaders I find. Nail clippers for .40c, cute plastic cups for .10c, toothbrushes 2 for $1 and so on. I get friends to give me the toys out of kid meals they get (since a lot of us buy them for the smaller portions). Back to school sales in August are a gold mine. And it's usually pretty easy to talk an event coordinator into giving you a few leftover T shirts when you say why you want them. (And I give them a pamphlet for Operation Christmas Child too!)

I save coins to pay the requested $7 a box processing donation and to buy the one thing I don't cost cut on...sturdy Rubbermaid totes with locking lids. I figure the box should be part of the gift. And this year, I'm going to make some simple tote bags of denim just the right size to carry the box, with a handle long enough to sling over their shoulder.

An underbed box in the guest room stashes my treasures until early November. Then I pull out the stored goodies and have a wonderful evening of box packing. We have hot chocolate and cookies as we sort, pack and close each box.

The final thing we put in is a letter to the child who will receive it, with our picture and our prayers and wishes to them. All of our boxes are made for boys in the oldest age level, as that is what OCC receives the least of.

We have been fortunate in that we know where two of our boxes have ended up. One went to Sudan. It was pictured in the annual report for that year! I was SO excited! The other went to Jamaica. The boy who received it wrote us back and sent his picture! What fun!

I wonder where my 2007 boxes will end up?

The Reason Why

I just recently was asked why my sponsor kids and writing buddies and nephews & nieces of the heart are so important to me.

I thought about it for a while and it occured to me why I do this...the reason my kids are important to me, is that in this scary, screwed-up world they bring me HOPE and a feeling that maybe, just maybe, I can have a wee role in making it not so screwed-up.

A day for quotes

Having just been to Madison County Iowa a few weeks ago, I've been thinking about the book that started all the hoopla over the bridges in Madison County.

I've read just about all of Robert James Waller's books...not so much because I really like the story itself but because I really enjoy the way he turns a phrase.


From "Old Songs in a New Cafe"...

(regarding the death of the last Duskie Seaside Sparrow)...
"But the day Orange Band died there was a faint sound out there in the universe. Hardly noticeable unless you were expecting it and listening. It was a small cry, the last one, that arched upward from a cage in Florida, ricocheted along galactic highways and skimmed past the scorched parts of an old moon rocket still in orbit. If you were listening closely, though, you could hear it...'I am zero'.
Extinct. The sound of the word is like the single blow of a hammer on cold steel."
--"I Am Orange Band"
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"For me, I'm content with Waller's Second Conjecture: Existence takes on meaning only when you give it meaning by making it meaningful. And how do you make it meaningful? By listening to those almost-secret voices within you that, at certain critical times, whisper, "This is me".
In those moments, it's important to consciously note what you're doing and to do more of it, a lifetime of it, in fact."
--"The Turning Of Fifty"
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"There are Yaqui drums in high plains arroyos and ship engines north of Cairo I have not yet heard. There are beaches where you can still run naked at dawn and visions within a yard of my house that I have not yet seen through the lens of my Nikon."
--"The Turning Of Fifty"
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And, if it's all right with everyone else, I think I'll skip the midlife passage involving gold chains and Porsches and suntans.
Instead, I'm lacing up my twelve-year-old Red Wings, loading the cameras, putting new strings on the 1957 Martin flattop, getting ready to go where egrets fly. Like an old rider of the surf, I can already see the next wave coming. It looks fine and fair. It looks worth the effort."
--"The Turning Of Fifty"
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"And Arabia came along. On Themari Street in Riyadh, the old ways endure. There is gold, and women with covered faces and men with covered intentions."
--"One Good Road Is Enough"
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