Operation Christmas Child

Each year, through our church, we participate in something called Operation Christmas Child. We fill a shoebox with little things - toothbrush, toothpaste, stuffed animals, toys, etc... and it is sent around the world to a child who may not have any other presents at Christmas, or who may not have ever received a gift before in their life.

All year, we put aside a percentage of Samuel's allowance in his Share Jar.

(We do actually put aside a larger percentage than what you see here. This picture was taken after we spent the $ this year.)

At the end of the year, he is allowed to take this money and pick the things he wants to go in the shoebox. When you donate a box, you get to pick if you want it to go to a boy or girl, and pick an age range. We always pick someone close to Samuel's age to make it more meaningful for him. This year, he took the share money to the dollar store and picked out a bunch of things to go in the box. He really considered each and every thing before putting it in the cart - "would I like to play with this?" "would I think this is fun?" "this would probably break right away", etc...

In years past, he has had a hard time when we buy all of this stuff and then we have to give it away, so this year we did 2 things to make it easier:

1. We bought the items and then immediately brought them to church and dropped them off. Not having them ever come home with us made it easier to give them away.
2. He took some money from his Spend Jar and used it to buy something for himself at the dollar store at the same time.

Here is my proud little helper, dropping off the box at church:

Future Artist (perhaps in a tattoo parlour)

Seriously, child, what do you have against drawing on the paper? Why must you always use your legs as the canvas?

The amazing hat

Samuel was home sick 2 days this week. The first day he was really out of commission, sleeping most of the day. But he started to feel a lot better on the second day, so he spent quite a long time making a hat. As you can see in the video below, it's not just an ordinary hat. It has 2 balloons attached to straws. I don't think you can see these other features, but it also has a snack compartment, a hidden pocket for a comic strip, and he is currently working on how to attach a cup of water somehow. I love these little sneak peaks into his personality. Maybe he is going to be an inventor or an engineer someday?