The good news is: it's not staying!

So my kitchen looked like this over the weekend:

but the good news is that NONE of that stuff is for the children who live in my home!

Those presents were generously donated by sponsors for the 2 children I serve through Child Advocates who will spend Christmas in a foster home. Every Christmas Child Advocates creates wish lists for each of the children we serve and then corporations and individuals sponsor children, buy them gifts and deliver them to a warehouse where the Child Advocate (CASA), like me, goes and picks them up to deliver them to the abused children on our cases. That warehouse is like something out of the North Pole. It is huge and filled with toys, Christmas stockings, bikes, and big tables lined with wrapping paper and bows (if volunteers want to do their wrapping at the warehouse)! And it's a testament to the fact that people are still generous in this day and age.

I got everything wrapped and now I get to deliver them, such a fun job! Seriously, it's awesome to be able to watch the delight when children open gifts and know you don't have to be the one to find spots to put them away or ever enforce that they get picked up!

And as a side note, it turns out that my 5 year old daughter is an excellent voice-activated automatic tape dispenser! I'd just said "tape" every time I needed a piece and then a piece would be handed to me!


She's staying!
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Another thing that's not staying:
Notice anything strange about that nativity scene?

Hint: look at the white thing right behind the donkey and in front of Mary.


Yeah, it's a snowman.

What? You don't remember that part in Luke? You know the angel, the donkey ride to Bethlehem, no room at the inn but you can stay in the stable, baby Jesus was born, Mary laid him in the manger as Joseph, the animals, and the snowman looked on?

No, no snowman mentioned in the Bible?

Then there's an infiltrator in my nativity!

One of my children created that snowman a week ago out of clay and when I wasn't looking, managed to smuggle it into the manager scene. Nice try, but it's NOT staying. The children have 2 nativities sets to play with, add Yoda to, whatever, but this one is mine! Mine, mine, mine!

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And the last thing that I'm glad is not staying? The cold weather!

Y'all, it's been rough. We've had about 20 hours now where you really need a winter coat outside, it's that cold. And I don't like it. I don't like to be cold. There are people that live where I live that whine and complain when it's warm in December, "It doesn't feel like Christmas." I can assure you I am not one of those people!

But, the good news is that it's not staying! The high on Wednesday is 76 degrees F! Hurray! I get a lot more done when I'm not huddled under a blanket!