Christmas in January!

Shortly after we arrived at Honour Village, we learned that a primary school in Perth Australia was sending Christmas gift boxes for the children.  Each of these young students had decorated a shoebox with Christmas wrap, then filled it with gifts to send overseas.  For one reason and another, the boxes didn't arrive for Christmas.  In fact, they arrived the second week of January. 

Stacks and stacks of gift boxes!
122 in all!

Each box was labelled with a generic description - 'Girl, age 10', 'Boy, age 4' (you get the picture), and so we volunteers set about to sort through the booty, to ensure there were no perishables or dangerous items, and to repack the gift boxes so that they were personalized for our Honour Village kids, taking into account their age, likes and interests.  We also wanted to ensure that each child would receive a similar gift with the same amount of things inside.  (No fun if one got all clothing and the next got two Barbie dolls).  It was a monumental task that took two volunteers three full days working full time.

Finally the big day came when the presents were handed out. 

The kids with their boxes

We all felt like Santa Claus as we called out a child's name, then watched them open their boxes with glee and delight! 

Here's a glimpse into the joy of opening gifts.   

Wow, look at all this loot!



What did you get?



Oh boy!  Candy!!

A pencil topped with a jingle-bell Christmas tree

Cool shades!

Just for me!

Happiness is......

I'm a little Princess!!

Who has the bigger smile, me or Barney?

Seeing their happy faces just reinforced what I've secretly known all along..... 

It truly is better to give than to receive!!