Operation Christmas Child

Today we had the extreme privilege of sending a gift to two impoverished girls, somewhere in the 2-4 age range through the incredible ministry of Operation Christmas Child. 

I get chills just thinking about those two girls, who they might be, if they'll like our gifts for them, if they'll understand the TRUE gift that we're sharing with them, etc.

Our day started bright and early with a trip to Target (one of Cutie Face's favorites--in her words: "dey have dolls dere. i like dolls. i like dere dolls a LOT").

using her new "holding on" skills

We shopped in the dollar section and in the toy section. Cutie Face had lots of input and seemed to understand that these gifts were just that--not to be kept but to be given away.

We swung by our house, picked up Cutie Cakes (who had been taking a cat nap with J) and walked over to church with our bags of goodies and our two shoe boxes.

The kids had a little chat about what the game plan would be--they were so excited they could hardly sit still!

Cutie Cakes tried her hardest, though, and set an example for her older sister!

After the 2-minute instruction (which i'm sure felt like eternity when the words "cookies", "frosting", and "hot chocolate" were mentioned), the kids ran to the cookie decorating station.

this was Cutie Face's first year ever to decorate cookies 

(as 15-months is, in my book, too young to decorate!)

she was very proud of her sprinkles

after everyone earned their sugar rush, they settled in (ha!) for a brief movie about the whys and hows of Operation Christmas Child. It was really neat and very moving to see the impact these shoeboxes of goodies have on each and every child. 

Finally it was shoe-packing time! Even Cutie Cakes got in on the action

Cutie Face was very pleased with her packing skills

Even Cutie Cakes was amazed (whoa!)

it was a packing,

stuffing

wrapping,

and extremely joyful

extravaganza!

 

I pray these boxes are blessings and beacons of light 

in an often bleak world for their recipients!

Merry Christmas! {in photos}

Thankfully a picture can tell a thousand words because I have tons to update on from Christmas Day!

Cutie Face woke up bright and early and donned some reindeer antlers

She awoke early enough to get to accompany Poppy on his yearly Christmas trip
to the one Starbucks store open on Christmas day

We got coffee for the whole household
and Cutie Face ate some oatmeal outside while spreading Christmas cheer

Upon our return we found Lil Miss and Sweet Pea up and about
(check out cute Sweet Pea's tree shirt!)

Cutie Face checked out her stocking
and found a baby doll that can go into the bath with her! Score!

and a phone! If we stopped at the phone, she would have been thrilled!


Then she went to bed for an early nap because she was soooo exhausted.
We watched Lil Miss open some of her presents. This is what J & I got her:

The twin watched Lil Miss open her presents while holding Sweet Pea


Cutie Face finally woke up and opened her "big" present from Mimi & Poppy:
A baby doll with a baby crib and other baby accessories

In the meantime, I received a new-to-me DSLR camera (!). Woohoo!
Notice the change of quality of photos (me experimenting on still-life)

Cutie Face took a quick dip in the pool before lunch. So fun!

She took yet another nap (!) and then hung out with Mimi and Sweet Pea
(who was less than thrilled)

Before dinner, we took a family trip to the beach and were so glad we did!

Cutie Face got over her fear of sand...

and over her fear of the ocean...

and really enjoyed herself!

What a great way to end our Christmas Celebration 2009! We hope you had a very Merry Christmas, too!

Pink Pig!

This afternoon held a long anticipated event--the grand opening of the Macy's Pink Pig! The twin and I made plans to attend the Grand Opening Preview party more than a month ago (which is really planning when it comes to my calendar!).

Sadly, Cutie Face decided that this would be the day where she did not need to take a nap. She finally fell asleep on our way back downtown. First, though, I had to make a pitstop at Babies 'R' Us...not knowing what to do with my sleeping bambina, I decided to lay down our shopping cart cover and place her into it...like so:

We shopped for 25 minutes with her in the cart like that the whole time. And, she even transferred BACK to the car without waking up--I was impressed!

The Twin and I eventually made it to the Pink Pig where we could hear the festivities from the parking lot.

Time out you say! What is the Macy's Pink Pig?

Well, if you aren't from Atlanta, you may be wondering what could be so exciting about a pink pig at Macy's.

The twin and i, despite spending 11 out of our 28 years in Atlanta, had never experienced the Pink Pig in person. Sure, we had heard about it, but we really had no clue what it was or what it entailed. We decided today would be the perfect time to find out just what the Macy's Pink Pig was since 1) we now had our own kiddos and 2) we had free passes!

Despite not needing to get...

The line for the ride was way past the ticket booth.

and it stretched for ever forward:

Here is sweet Lil' Miss sitting patiently. She was so cute in her PIG-tails (get it?)

We eventually made it outside where we could glimpse some of the balloons:

Cutie Face decided she was still tired...or she was just sick of waiting in line:

The twin and I took turns walking (dragging?!?!) around to keep them occupied

I wish that this event happened a little earlier--there were SO many great "kodak moment" balloon shots available that would have tied in perfectly with this week's I ❤ Faces theme!

As we inched our way forward, we saw what the end of the line held for us:

We also saw Priscilla the {GIANT} pink pig:

45-minutes in line and we've almost made it to the sign...getting closer


Then we made it to the outside of the tent...getting closer, getting closer...

Woohoo! After a 60+ minute wait, we made it inside the CRAZY pink tent...it was next to impossible to get a decent picture due to the crazy colors and lighting:

I can't help but wonder...was the line this long when the Pink Pig looked like this:

The line behind us...still stretching:

almost there chickadees! (they can barely contain their excitement)

WOW! We actually made it on the ride!

The twin and Lil' Miss

the rare photo of me with Cutie Face (thanks sis for this capture!)

After all that hype, I'm glad to say that we rode the pink pig. We got our sticker (which is the coveted souvenir for riders each year) and we have pictures...

I also have a video of the 90-second ride. You tell me if you think it was worth the 60+ minute wait: