January 17, 2012

Secret Santa

Posted by Ashley

2 comments

Well a lot has happened since we last updated, so we’ll try to fill you in! In December we had lots of fun Christmas celebrations! Some of our friends from the States donated money for the transition kids to make their Christmas celebration special. We thought it would be a great idea to do a Secret Santa with them, to help teach them about giving, because many had never had the opportunity to really get anyone anything before.

The kids had an ABSOLUTE blast!! We put the names in a hat and headed downtown to go shopping. Most of them were really great with the secret part, others not so much ☺ But they all had such a fun time! One of the funniest parts of the day was when we were all on the bus headed downtown and everyone is voicing their requests to everyone so that whoever had their name would here. The most common request was, “Oh if you have money left over I want some grapes and apples!” We had told them they should spend all of their money so if they just had a little left over after buying the main gift(s) they should pick out candy or coke that they know the receiver would like. Well, they didn’t want candy or coke, they wanted fruit! Not typical American kids ☺

As they split up and did their shopping we walked around downtown and went to the meeting spot. The first child to show up was Azael – who is not technically part of the project but lives near the house and goes over there everyday. He was SO thrilled with his purchases. He was buying for Ricky and he got him a jersey, a hat, sunglasses, and the fruit that had been requested. It really was just PERFECT! It was one of the sweetest things I have ever seen! As he showed us all of the gifts he bought you could tell he had put so much thought into every part of it and was so happy to know that Ricky would love it! Here’s Ricky in his new clothes!

The rest of the kids arrived and we all went to pizza hut to have a fun lunch and share the gifts. The sad part is that Justin took lots of photos and videos and then his phone crashed and we lost them all! ☹ But we all had so much fun looking at all of the great gifts and the not-so-great ones too ☺ We did manage to salvage one photo which is below! The kids had such a great time and a really special day, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to do this with them!