Christmas Countdown: Groceries for Good

Oddly enough, today's advent calendar activity was a trip to the grocery store.

Peeper and I bought groceries for the family that our MOMS Club has "adopted" for the holidays, through the Salvation Army.

In addition to provided gifts for the kids (in this case, just one kid, a five year old girl, as luck would have it), we are also asked to provide Christmas dinner and some other groceries.

Thanks to generous donations from our members, we were able to give the little girl four toys that she'd asked for, a filled stocking, an outfit with a matching hair bow (made by one of our members). For her mom, we had a 31 backpack purse and scarf (made by the same member), as well as some gift wrapping material and the groceries.

Well done, ladies!

Graffiti Artist

Once again, the MOMS Club left back-to-school messages in sidewalk chalk at several area schools. Last year, we did all nineteen schools of the district where most of us live, and this year, we did those, plus three in another district where we have some kids, plus K (AK's mom) and I did the Montessori Academy.

Peeper went out with me Friday evening and Sunday afternoon to work on the public schools, but we waited until this evening for Montessori, so it would be fresh tomorrow morning for the first full day of classes with all the students.

Peeper got into the act, adding the details of my Smiley Face Guy.

I had the circle colored in and she asked to add the face. I told her where to put the eyes and mouth, and then she got kind of carried away.

He now also has a nose, cheeks, ears, hair, chin, skin, body, legs, and I'm really not quite sure what else.

This is how I looked when we finished.

When I was taking photos of the chalk, Peeper decided to do a little photo shoot of her own. Here she is with the chalk outside the door of the Children's House wing, where she is dropped off and picked up.

And she wanted to take a few by the playground, too.

It's On Her

Our MOMS Club held a restaurant fundraiser today, to help build a playground in Newtown, CT, that will be a memorial to those lost at Sandy Hook Elementary.

The three of us went for lunch, and then Peeper and I stopped for dinner on the way home from dance class.

Here she is, "signing the check."

Holiday Giftaway

What the heck, I'll save myself some typing and just share the press release that I'm about to send out to a couple of local newspapers:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(OurTown) The MOMS Club of OurTownWest held a “Holiday Giftaway” on Saturday that provided free holiday shopping for the families of Our County Head Start students.

The club collected new and gently-used toys, games, books and stocking stuffers from members and the community, as well as monetary donations that were used to purchase new gifts.

Over 1500 gifts were distributed to 250 children – 190 of whom came through in the first hour.
Club President D said, “"My heart is just full of joy today. I couldn't be more pleased with the success of this event in its first year. I am a true believer that if you are blessed and able to give and pay it forward to someone less fortunate, knowing you have helped make someone else smile will give you the best feeling in the world. Today we helped brighten Christmas for 250 kids and that just brings tears to my eyes."

“The best moment of the day for me was when I overheard a five or six year old boy, who was holding the toy he’d chosen, say, “Mama, you said you couldn’t get me anything for Christmas. Did you change your mind?” said Administrative Vice President Whozat Whozat-Shrike.
“If the only thing we accomplished today was that one kid who otherwise would not have had any gifts went home with a toy in his hands, and a smile on his face, then that makes all the work we put into this more than worth it.”

And the email that I sent out to the club members this afternoon:

Thank you, everyone, for your donations to and your help with the Giftaway. I think that what we did today was pretty amazing, especially for a first effort.

We gave gifts to 250 kids this morning, which calculates to be at least *1500* gifts distributed.

190 of those kids came through (and at least 1100 gifts went out) in the FIRST HOUR!

We ended up shutting down early, because we were about out of gifts, but we found good places for what we did have left.

We sent the books and puzzles, as well as the leftover gift wrap and gift bags, to the Salvation Army Thrift Store. The stuffed toys went to the Salvation Army for their Christmas Dinner program for seniors, and I dropped a small box of baby toys on the doorstep of Pregnancy Ministries on my way home.

So, that's some more people that we've helped. I think that's quite a day, and we have a lot to be proud of.

I know I'm proud to be a part of such a generous bunch of ladies!
Thank you again!

The beginning - this is about half of the tables. 

The end - these things went to the Salvation Army

And these, plus a tummy-time mat and minus a couple of things, went to Pregnancy Ministries.  

Sundaes at Sunrise

Despite having been up until 2 am, Peeper popped up at 9:15 this morning, so I went ahead and got up and took her to a fundraiser that, as of bedtime, we were planning to blow off in favor of sleep.

(We'd bought advance tickets, so they already had our donation.)

It was a breakfast - including ice cream - at a local restaurant . . .

. . . complete with special guests!

Pride Goeth Before . . .

We had a busy and quite productive day, which included attending three different MOMS Club events, between us.

This morning, Shrike took Peeper to make a Mother's Day craft with the "couldn't find a babysitter" crowd, while I went to a "moms only coffee talk" with the "yay, it's preschool day!" bunch.

I had a very nice visit with lots of good conversation, but serious and not-so-much and was there for almost three hours.

Our hostess' husband was working from home that day, and when we left he told her "They should call it 'coffee talk, and talk, and talk . . . '"

Then I drove across town to pick up Peeper (Which involved nursing her to sleep and then trying to keep her asleep while putting her in the car. Yeah, not so much.) and drive back past the house I'd just left, and another ten minutes down the road to T's house for a meeting of the spaghetti dinner committee.

Have I mentioned the spaghetti dinner? We're doing a spaghetti dinner to benefit our member whose firefighter husband was burned a few weeks ago. I'm on the committee.

Anyway, I thought she'd gone right back to sleep, but as I was stopped at a light - coincidentally, in front of this guy's firehouse - she said "How many flags? Papa likes the red one!"

So, five minute nap? Check!

She actually did pretty well through the meeting, but was done by the end. I figured she was probably sleepy, and knew she must be hungry, because Shrike had reported that she'd had a few Cheez-Its at the craft, and that was it, other than nursing off and on all afternoon.

Also, she was asking T for food. We'd been there the day before for playgroup, and there were cupcakes to celebrate her daughter's fifth birthday, so Peeper started with "Wanna cupcake."

Then I believe she also asked for fries (that's what she ate when T watched her the other day) and yogurt and "bleu cheese." Actually, I'm pretty sure that was "blue cheese" but I don't know what she meant by that. Maybe the package color? I guess I should look at my cheese packages and see if any of them are blue. Evidently, she likes that kind.

Anyway, so when we left there, I threw her a snack bowl of Cheerios and that helped, and then we stopped at Wendy's and that helped a lot.

Then we headed downtown to the first First Friday of the year, which is also an "arts and eats" celebration. (Not the actual name of the event, but it would make a good one, wouldn't it?)

I put Peeper on my back, and before my coffee was made (at my first stop, of course) she was asleep!

So, while she snoozed, I hit up store owners and artists for donations for the raffle that we're doing at the spaghetti dinner - and I totally kicked ass!

There were a few that asked me to check back later, but I got eight donations just handed to me right then, and about the same number promised, we just have to contact them to make it actually happen!

I also gave out cards for my store to two different people who asked about the carrier that I had Peeper in and, when one artist gave me her card and said "But don't go to the website, it's not up yet. I've had problems with it," I gave her my contact information for web design services.

Then, the universe decided that I was just getting way too cocky, and made me lock my keys in the car.

Giving

As I may have mentioned before, my position on the MOMS Club board involves organizing the club's monthly service projects. Over and over, I've been amazed at the generousity of our members.

Our current project is to supply Christmas gifts and dinner for two families that we've "adopted" through the Salvation Army. Each is a single mom with two kids - one has four and five year old boys and the other has a nineteen month old son and six month old daughter.

Our club will be providing each family with:

All the gifts that they specifically requested for the kids (clothes plus at least two toys each)
Christmas stockings for each kid
Body lotions and $40 salon gift certificate for the moms
A string of Christmas lights
About $70 worth of food
$20 grocery gift certificate

I've got everything packed up and ready to deliver to the Salvation Army on Friday.
 
One family's gifts.
 

The other family's gifts.

The groceries before sorting and boxing.

One family's food.

The other family's food.

All the food.

If any of the cans are dented, this is why.

All the gifts