Salvation Army Angel Tree {Volunteer Opportunities for Kids}

Our church has an amazing outreach program through their Next Steps Center.  We volunteer there regularly and we enjoy always having different projects to work on there.  This time Rachel and I volunteered with the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program.  The Angel Tree program has Christmas trees up in various places around town.  The Christmas trees are covered with "decorations" that are cards with the age and gender of a child and their Christmas wish list.  You can choose a child to sponsor by pulling their card off of the tree.  Then you shop for them and bring the gifts to a designated drop off place. 

At the Next Steps Center, the Salvation Army and volunteers had already gathered the gifts together and sorted them all by family.  They were ready for the families to pick them up.  Rachel and I would be working to get the gifts out to each of the families as they showed up to the Next Steps Center.  The majority of gifts were in bags that were sorted by family.

This section was for oversized items that couldn't be grouped with the rest of a family's items in the large bags.  There were lots of doll houses, play pens, ride on toys, car seats, and so much more.

The families started lining up outside to pick up their gifts.  I couldn't help but smile as I noticed the 5 mission statements above the heads of everyone in line.

1. Engage with those in need in our community.
2. Advocate for the underserved in the community.
3. Build strategic partnerships.
4. Develop community kingdom leaders.
5. Equip and release people to meet the needs they see.

I love volunteering here!

So back to the Angel Tree.  There are hundreds of bags to get out to all of these people in line.  It seemed a little overwhelming at first until I understood the system.  It was quite an impressive system!

Each family has a ticket to turn in at the desk.  The volunteer looks up the family and writes down the last three digits of their assigned number on a ticket and hands it to a volunteer in the back (that's us!)

The bags are all lined up in rows and organized into numerical sections.  So if you had ticket 801-825 then you would go down the row to the right in this picture.

Here we had the ticket and gift for 575.  The green ticket told us we had one oversized item to pick up as well.

We would then bring the items to the front to be given to the families.  There were so many smiles on their faces when they received their gifts.  What a wonderful way to get in the Christmas spirit by blessing others! 

Outside of the Next Steps Center were these stacks of  "Boxes of Blessings".

Each box contained non-perishable food items to make about three meals.  Each family that came to pick up their Angel Tree gifts was given a box to take home.

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I have enjoyed doing many volunteer projects like this with my kids.  It is a special time that we spend together "doing the most good".  They learn to reach outside of themselves to help others and think of how they can bless the community around them.  These are lessons that our society today is desperately in need of.  If you are interested in getting your children involved in volunteering, start by asking at your church to see if they have some opportunities there in which they can serve.

Blessing Teachers at Christmas {Volunteer Opportunities for Kids}

One of our recent volunteer opportunities was through Valley Creek Church's Next Steps Center.  The Next Steps Center has partnered with a local public school and we have let them know that we are here to help the school, its teachers, and students, in anyway we can.  As one way to serve them, the Next Steps Center recently hosted a Christmas party for the teachers and staff of the school.  The more we can love on the teachers the more they are filled and nourished to love on the children.

Rachel and I volunteered as greeters for the party.  We smiled and welcomed everyone in.  Rachel did such a great job!  Everyone that came in was so nice and friendly.  We even saw our previous next door neighbor whom we love dearly.  I knew she was a teacher in LISD but she was at a different school the last time we talked to her so it was such a surprise to see her!

The party was a success.  They had delicious food and a fun auction.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.

As guests began to leave, we were told to bless each of them with a candy filled apple and a copy of our pastor's amazing book, Follow the Cloud.

Tied to each book was a special invitation to attend our Christmas services.  I do pray that this reached some of those sweet teachers and they are able to come to one of our services.

Rachel and I enjoyed our time with our fellow Next Steps Center volunteers as well as the teachers from the school.  Serving others has been such a blessing for us during this Christmas season and I love finding ways to serve alongside my children.

ICE! at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine

It has been really warm for December and that can make it hard to get in the Christmas spirit.  What better way to find the chill of winter than to visit ICE! at the Gaylord Texan where it is always a brisk 9 degrees.  This year's ICE! theme is 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  

The Gaylord Texan brought in 140 Chinese ice sculptors to turn 2 million pounds of ice into an amazing colorful storyland.

As we walked through each room, we read a few more stanzas of the story and enjoyed new ice sculptures and creations that went along with what we read.  

The Gaylord provides everyone with their fashionable blue parkas but don't forget a hat and gloves because it is still really, really cold in there.  Remember I mentioned 9 degrees?

It is just amazing that everything we saw was made of ice.

We found Santa and his reindeer!

The kids' favorite part was just past this giant Christmas tree where two-story stair rails were actually 5 amazing ice slides!

Rachel wanted me to get this video of her going down a slide.  They had so much fun here and they waited in line over and over again to do it "just one more time".

The last room was my favorite.  It is an enchanting Nativity scene made of clear ice.

After the exhibit, we enjoyed some hot chocolate with our friends and then headed to the snow tube area.  We have never done the snow tubes before but they kids had a great time.  The employees were cool and gave the kids an extra little spin before releasing them to give them an especially fun ride.

ICE! continues through January 1st and you don't want to miss it!  We have gone on the weekend in the past and the crowds were just too much so I strongly recommend going during the week.

Salvation Army Bell Ringer {Volunteer Opportunities for Kids}

There are always a lot of volunteer opportunities for kids around the Christmas holidays.  One of the most recognizable ones is The Salvation Army Bell Ringers!  The money raised in the little red kettles goes to help local needs such as providing food and clothing to people in the community.  Rachel and I volunteered for a three hours time slot in front of Hobby Lobby in Lewisville.  

The Lewisville office of the Salvation Army is desperate for more volunteers and it it's not too late to sign up.  Just click HERE and find a time slot and location that works for you.  If you are outside of the Lewisville, TX area then click HERE and search for other bell ringer opportunities around the country.

Someone from the Salvation Army main office brought the kettle, aprons, and bells to us.  The sign stays stored just inside the Hobby Lobby for the next bell ringer.  The work was easy so it a great volunteer opportunity to do with your kids and family.  You just ring the bell, smile, and greet people as they enter and leave the store.  Usually people smile back and drop money in the bucket.  One person said that The Salvation Army had been a great help to her mom and she was happy to donate.  I was sad to see how many people looked rushed and stressed as they were out shopping so we tried really hard to be cheerful and wish them a Merry Christmas.  It was fun and we even got to let a few little kids ring the bell for us!

If you have a few hours before Christmas, please consider signing up to be a Salvation Army Bell Ringer.  Just click HERE and be a blessing to others in our community.

Bucket List: LSU Game With My Dad

A few years ago, a friend challenged me to write a bucket list - a list of things I'd like to do before I kick the bucket.  Here is the Bucket List I wrote in 2014.  

Every year, for as long as I can remember, my dad has gotten tickets to LSU Football games.  I have such fond memories of going to the games with him.  I remember meeting up with some friends of his before the game and having so much fun tailgating.  I remember trying deviled eggs for the first time and loving them.  I remember sitting in the stands "watching" the game although when I was little that really meant watching people around me and occasionally watching what was happening on the field.   And asking Dad a lot of questions about the game, penalties, etc.

Last year, as Dad was talking about the football games for the season, I felt nostalgia for the fun I had had with him at those games.  They were such good memories and I missed that experience.  I realized that I hadn't gone to an LSU football game with him since I was in college and decided that I needed to add an item to my Bucket List - Go to an LSU game with my Dad (plus tailgate and eat deviled eggs).  

Unfortunately, we live about 9 hours away from him and we only travel home in July and December so we miss out on the entire football season.  Last year I tried to work out a way that we could visit on a game weekend but we already had conflicts scheduled on those weekends.  It was just too late to change things around and make it work.  So this year, as soon as the game schedule came out, I started talking to Dad to make plans to come for a visit on a game weekend.  He was a little hesitant to agree to it at first.  For the last couple of years he has been giving the tickets to my brother to use and he has just been watching the game on TV at home.  But he said if I came over there then he would go to the game with me!  I told him we also had to tailgate and have deviled eggs :)

With the game schedule and our kids' various activity schedules, we decided that it would be best for me to fly to Louisiana on my own.  Stuart had a lot going on at work and Nicholas had an important hockey game that weekend so it wasn't a good time for them to go out of town.  I was a little nervous about getting through the airport and flying by myself so I kept putting off actually buying the plane ticket but Stuart encouraged me on and helped me find the best itinerary.

The kids seemed excited to ride along to take me to the airport....

...until it was time for me to actually say good-bye and then this happened...

She broke my heart and it was hard leaving all three of them, especially since I was so nervous about just finding my way through the DFW International Airport on my own.  But I'm a big girl and managed to find my gate and get on the plane without a major incident.

The flight was nice.  It always amazes me to look down on the clouds!

I took this picture just to show the kids the way the gas and particles in the different layers of the atmosphere act as prisms to reflect and filter different wavelengths of light.

You know you must be in south Louisiana when you start seeing all of the curvy rivers cutting through the landscape.  

It was dark when we landed but I was able to snap this picture of the Baton Rouge skyline at night.

On game day, we had some breakfast and grabbed some deviled eggs from a local deli.  But somewhere along the way, we got a little behind schedule and ran into some heavy game traffic on the interstate.  We realized that we wouldn't really have much time to tailgate once we got to the stadium so Dad opened up the deviled eggs and started snacking on them while we sat in traffic.  He pointed out that it was just like tailgating.  We were eating in the car before the game and we were surrounded by other LSU fans.  Yep, just like tailgating....

We got to our seats just fine.  The weather was gorgeous.  The temperature was great.  And I was just giddy to actually be sitting with my dad in Tiger Stadium about to watch an LSU football game!

The LSU Golden Band from Tiger Land took the field before the game.  As usual they were amazing.  I teared up a little as I sang the LSU Alma Mater with my Dad but the rest of the music was just exciting!  Geaux Tigers!

The game was great and we won!  LSU 33 - ARK 10!!!

I am so glad that Dad agreed to go to the game with me and that we worked out the details to make it happen!  It was such a fun day and I had a great time with my Dad.  I love you Dad!