Wrapping Up

I'll be honest, the sub-for-santa donations were a lot of work. We decided to take two families, one of which had 6 kids. So there was a lot of shopping. But what was even harder was all the wrapping! We wrapped about 10 presents each for 12 people. That's 120 presents to wrap!! My office looked like Santa's workshop. (And all the people who peeked in for all the December parties probably thought my kids were spoiled like crazy seeing all the presents in there! "Not ours! Not ours!")

But we got everything done and were able to deliver Saturday morning. One family organizes the entire thing and this year partnered with the City of South Salt Lake. They organized Christmas for over 60 families! What an incredible feat and act of service! The families they help are very poor and in need of clothes and food. They organized the gifts for each person by "Needs" (several items of clothing -- ours were sweatshirts and warm coats and an additional outfit if we could afford it), "Wants" (something cool or needed -- we had children who desired a soccer ball, headphones, nail paint kit, and parents who all "wanted" new shoes or sheets), and "Extras" like books or crafts (I LOVED choosing 2 books for each child!) Finally the organization listed a family need. One of our families needed towels and the other a TV. Wrapping all those towels reminded me of Aunt Marge giving us new towels each year and how much we loved receiving them! (That's one reason I chose that family.)

Speaking of Aunt Marge. One of the children requested a Batman blanket and a child in the other family listed "anything Batman."  So Marge agreed to make 2 Batman blankets. And of course with the extra material she made small blankets to give in addition that the children could take with them in the car easier. So sweet! I also found Batman pajamas for $1.97 at Old Navy in the right sizes. Score!

Not even all of it!

We were going to take my mom to the airport after we dropped off the gifts (we were asked to put them in large black garbage bags and label the bags with each family's identifying number). But we filled the car to the rim with all the bags so had to make one trip to drop off and then come back and get my mom!

I'll admit it's a little bit hard to give without seeing if they liked it. But I guess that's part of the point.
We got big hugs from the director of the program. What an undertaking she is doing! But what a wonderful thing to do!