Christmas Happenings

Also known as...Keep Lana's Mind Off Of This Pregnancy

I am so ready to have this baby.  And I think that I am starting to convince this baby that it might be time to come soon (well, we will have to see how my convincing skills are with an unborn child).

But so that I do not dwell on this topic, Matt and I have been keeping busy with our usual Christmas happenings.

 First we went to the wagon and tricycle gathering.  GE purchases many, many, many wagons and tricycles for the Salvation Army to give out to the needy children of the area.  However, they need to be assembled.  So they order pizza and invite all workers and families to come and put together these items.  I did not get much assembly done, but Grace made sure that each tricycle and wagon were comfy to sit on and ride in.  I guess you could call her the quality tester :)

 Two days later we went to our second usual Christmas event which is simply called Christmas Boxes.

GE takes donations for the Christmas Food Basket event, and use the proceeds to purchase bulk goods from the local food pantry.  Sometimes, other interesting items are purchased.  One year, for whatever reason, the food pantry had a pallet full of electric razors.  "Sure, we'll use 'em".  All of these purchases are brought to a warehouse, where GE volunteers and their families package everything up in large boxes.  They used to be baskets, but people got too generous for the contents to fit.  Each of these boxes usually end up weighing in at about 60 pounds, and delivered to local people in need.

The official count was 502 boxes filled that morning.  Grace loved riding the cart (and the boxes) through the packing area where people were placing items in the boxes.  She also met a very nice lady named Miss Julie who carried her and helped Matt push the cart to where it needed to go.  Later in the process, Grace would climb around the top of the boxes, pushing the lids closed, and holding them shut for the tape.  She had a blast.

I was wondering how these events would work with an active and determined two year old, but being enticed (bribed) with the idea of wagon rides, throwing away trash from the wagon/tricycle assembly, and donuts, does amazing things and Grace was very good through most of the events.