Operation Christmas Stocking

Melanie and Heather have been hard at work for two days so far, putting together the socks people have been making for us. You can see them working here... our classroom has become a sock factory! (Mel thought this photo op an ideal time to take a little nap. We're all pretty tired this time of year!) And there is Derrick in the background, having recently discovered my blog and catching up on a year of reading!

We have to go through some of them because people don't always follow instructions. I took an airport-type shot of contrabanned items removed from socks. Look closely and you'll see:
-unwrapped scissors
(poking out of the sock!)
-perfume and mouthwash
(people drink it)
-glass nail polish bottles
(they break!)
-very old, ratty bar of soap
-used stained washcloth (rag?)

Last year we even found a used razor!

This is sometimes the only gift a person will receive this year for Christmas. Most of the socks are perfect, and we are so grateful for the amazing and enthusiastic effort put out by individuals, groups, and families, to give to Operation Christmas Stocking. People have shipped and mailed and even Fed Exed them from afar! We will have 700 socks!

Thanks to Curves and other generous donors, we will also be able to give each child a new stuffed animal with their stocking! We've never been able to give a toy before so we're pretty exited about that!

And, the best gift of all, is gifted by the Gideons. We hand out New Testaments to anyone who has not received one in the past and would like to take the gift of God's Word to read for themselves.

I will conclude with the funniest sock item: a bar of Zest with the following message scrawled on it:

Guaranteed to get the bleeps out of the bloopers. To be used orally.