Day in the Life : Operation Christmas Child | Chesapeake Photographer

When I was a kid, I always could mark the nearing of Christmas when we began to gather supplies to pack in shoe boxes to send across the world via Operation Christmas Child. Our whole family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, everyone!) planned their boxes seemingly all year round, always picking up things here and their for shoe boxes. School starts after Labor Day in our part of Virginia, so this year, we spent our last day of summer gathering and prepping our boxes for their journey to a special child. The kids were so excited to pack their boxes and were so happy and were filled with joy to know that they would be helping some child, some where out there, have a brighter day. It's a special memory for me, so I wanted to document the day with our own kids. I hope that they will continue to enjoy giving and find joy in serving others.

We packed the following in our boxes:

• socks
• water bottles
• bandanas (we put opened these and spread them on the bottom to almost act like tissue paper or gift wrapping!)
• hair brush
• stuffed dolls/bears
• hot wheels
• soap & mesh pouf
• toothbrush/dental floss
• pencils & sharpener (in many parts of the world, children are only given 1-2 pencils to last them for the year!)
  
• friendship bracelets and supplies to make their own
• bouncy balls
• pencil pouches with zipper
• building block kits
• dress up accessories & princess crown
• tic tac toe bags with canvas carrying sack
• wooden waldorf peg doll sets with canvas carrying sack
• playing cards
• glue sticks/various school supplies

I saw the idea for the tic tac toe bags on Pinterest from a blog called Suburbia Unwrapped. She used paint markers for her muslin/canvas bags, but I chose to use acrylic paint that I already had at home. I simply cut a piece of craft foam to go inside of the bag so that the paint wouldn't bleed through. I painted the board on the bag and instead of doing X's and O's, I opted for 2 different colored stones. I could make 4 tic tac toe boards for $2 total. They are so cute and fun! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen some behind the scenes of the game and packing our boxes!

The wooden peg dolls/Waldorf dolls I ordered unfinished from Amazon. I painted them here at home. I ordered a case of 50 dolls. I am separating them into groups of 10. I plan on giving each of my children a set under the Christmas tree as well. They have had lots of Waldorf inspired toys over the years (and are you surprised that they still play with them? I'm not!) and I think that they will love these to play with. I chose to paint them in a rainbow of colors because I think their little imaginations will be sparked by the simplicity of them and they can pretend that they are whoever they want them to be!

We had so much fun packing our boxes and I'm glad I busted out the camera for just a few seconds to document these little hands doing mighty work. If you are interested in packing boxes to send to children who may not receive presents otherwise during the Christmas season, check out Hobby Lobby. They usually have Operation Christmas Child boxes there you can pick up, also some local churches have them as well. Pinterest is filled with great resources on what to pack and how to pack to maximize space in the boxes.  I'd love to hear what you put in yours or other fun ideas!