It's been a long time

I'm not a very good blogger, it's been weeks since my last post. I've been busy, thankfully I am almost ready for Christmas, just need to get some stocking stuffers for the kids. I've been working at the church everyday getting ready for the giving out of food & toy baskets. For those interested this is how the process goes.

1st they take families names, they did it 6 days in Oct & then the week after Thanksgiving & last Friday, ppl have to bring proof of residentency (we help only that live in the same county as the church) & proof of income. We fill out cards with their names & names of ppl living in the house with them, then if they have kids 16 and under we fill out a toys slip, which only has the ages of the kids (boys _ages______ girls ___ages_____) we ask if they have anything bought or layed away & what type of toys the children like (art / cars / trains / barbie's / bratz etc. etc.) We don't promise them these things but it helps to have an idea of what the child likes.

Next we take the parents name & put them on the wall (we tape table paper to the wall & then write on that). My main job is to find the boxes, I find what I think is the right size box for the # of kids in the family, then I put the name on the wall & then put the name on the box (last, first boy (age's), girl (ages)). I usually do about 8 - 10 per row & do a whole row at a time trying to size the boxes from tallest to shortest so it's easier to read the names when the day come to pick up the toys.

Filling is next, someone takes a slip off the top & see's the childrens age, then they go and pick out, normally 2 bigger type toys & one smaller (we have been getting donations from the dollar store, so that would be a small toy). All girls 12 and under get a doll/barbie/bratz. We have tables set up w/ certain things on it, a boys table, girls table, babies table, game table, teen boy, teen girl, that way toys are in the right age group when they go looking for something. We also put in Stuffed Animals, coloring boook's/crayons, reading books as extra gifts.

Dec 21 is the day we will give out, families will come to the church that morning, either between 8am - 10am or 10am - 12 depending on what days they signed up. They go in the church first and get a number when their number is called they go to the front and someone will pull their card & give them a ticket (they have to have that for their turkey). Then they go to the back of the church & the number of members of their family is called out & they walk up the hall & get a box full of canned food (food is boxed 1-2 in family, 2-3 in family 4-5 in family & 6 or more in family), plus a 10lb bag of potato's, bread & then outside to get their turkey.

Next they come over to another building for their toys, they line up for them and when they get to the front Mom asks for their name and she calls it out and runners will go and get the box & bring it to her, she double checks to make sure the dolls are in there & then gives them box, say's Merry Christmas & your welcome (I say it even if they don't say Thank You, and you would be how many don't say it) and that is it.

Here is a picture of the toys on each of the tables. That is my Mom & another worker, a family friend Jean in the background. They were putting batteries with the toys that need batteries with them. We try to always put batteries with the toys that require them.

I remember being a kid and going in and helping Mom get ready to give out toys for Christmas, back in the day we use to have to give out used toys & only new toy, God has blessed the Mission so much, we don't have to give out the used toys anymore. It was very time consuming to wash & clean all those toys, but again I say Thankfully we don't have to do that anymore.