Christmas 2015 - Pictures of the Kids - Part 5

These are some pictures of most of the Munchkins at home on 

Christmas opening their presents from us.  :)

Christmas 2015-Wrapping Presents-Part 3

Yesterday there were nine of us wrapping presents and it took a solid three hours to get it all done.  Everyone was so dedicated and so very quick and efficient, it was amazing !!  :)  

Thank you Blanca, Lino, Reilly, Debra, Cheryl, Starr and your two precious young daughters, Daija & Takiran, for all the Love and caring you put into the beautiful wrapping jobs on all the gifts !!  :)  

And there were many to wrap this year !!  :)

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for your sweet help !!   :)

Christmas Party 2015 For The Munchkins & A Ben's Bell For Me - Part 4

On Monday, December 21st,  we had the Christmas Party for the Munchkins over at Outer Limit School.  :)  Mr. Bill, the owner of the school, gave us a room to use which was big enough for the presents, kids, parents, and some of the staff.  :)  We lined the room with the food boxes and the Trader Joe's paper bags stuffed with presents and grouped them together for each family.  It was a sight to behold as you can see in some of the pictures.  :)   We asked all the parents to have their kids open the presents at home, as it would have been too confusing to have 20 children do that at once.  Plus it wasn't even Christmas yet.  :)

Thank you Miss Blanca, for all your kind and loving help with this and especially the party, which you put together for the kids !!  :) You are such an incredibly kind woman and are always there to help me and everyone else too !!  :) I don't give you enough Gratitude Hugs !! Thank you too Miss Minnie, you are such a wonderful helper also, and I'm very grateful for you throughout the year !!  :)

Thank you, Tricia, for providing some of the food trays for the party and for helping out all the way around !!   :)

And a big thank you goes to you, Maggie, again this year, for once more doing these beautiful face paintings for the Munchkins during the party. You are very creative & I'm grateful for your loving contribution !!  :)

In the middle of all this, Mr. Bill held a speech. He shared how I simply wandered into Outer Limits School one day 18 months ago, asked him if he would be interested in working together, that I wanted to create a weekend food backpack program for some of the children in need there.  I was really touched and felt like I was turning five shades of red during it all.  :)   Your kind words touched me deeply !!  Thank you, Bill, for all your generous & loving help with this food project !!  

You are one of two of the gentlest and kindest men I know !!   :)

Debbie, thank you for coming to the party !! It was nice to see you there with us & your son too !!  :)

Next Bill introduced two ladies from Ben's Bells who were there to honor me & after that I couldn't hold it together anymore.  :)  I started crying and couldn't stop for quite some time.  It is such a humbling experience to receive a Ben's Bell, and this is my second one at that.  The first one I received about 5 years ago when I was feeding the homeless in Tucson's city parks for four years. 

You can see in some of the pictures how touched I was then and really still am every day !!  :)

Leave it to Mr. Bill !!  :)  Thank you for honoring me in that way !!  It means the world to me !!  

During our little Christmas party most of the parents came up to me to share how grateful they were for the weekly food and how much is has been helping out their kids.  All these families are struggling to get by and are screened so the right ones will get the help they need !!  There were so many hugs and kind words of gratitude and I wish I could share each and every one with you all reading this.  :)  Some of the parents told me that they didn't know how they would pull off Christmas for their child(ren) this year.  It was really touching. 

There is a single Dad with four little girls, ages 2, 3, 5 & 7, who is fairly new to the backpack program. He works full time and raises these four precious little girls mostly by himself, Can you imagine ??!! And he is an incredible Dad, so caring and loving with his girls. When he came into the room and saw all the presents lined up for his girls and then the Christmas food box too, he started crying. He thought that each girl was going to get one present and that would be all.  He stood in a corner sobbing and I went over to hold him. He cried so hard that he was heaving and then I started crying too. Eventually he calmed down and told me that "all day I was trying to figure out how I was going to tell my girls that evening that there wouldn't be any Christmas presents this year".  

Thanks to each and every one of you that didn't come true !!  :)

On her wish list one of the little girls very humbly asked for a gold fish, Gold Fish Crackers, a little purse and a nighty.  Reilly & her sister Eileen pulled off the little fish in the bowl, the crackers and enough fish food to last a long while.  There is a picture below of her watching her new fish swim in the bowl.  We were concerned that she wanted to feed the crackers to her fish, but her Dad told us that she loves the Gold Fish Crackers so much herself.  :)

Thank you all for helping make this possible for these Munchkins for another Christmas this year !! :)

Many Blessings to you & yours always and in all ways !!