Christmas preparations are underway, even if in our own better-late-than-never pace. We put up our tree, which is just beautiful in the window.
It welcomes kids waiting for the bus to hang on the window bars and peer in at the ornaments. Inside, they aren’t permitted to touch it, but they will spend long, long pauses sitting and staring–adults and kids alike.
A few weeks ago we learned that Lay Tah Oo’s family was moving to a new house again, a little further from us. The day before the move, he came up to me and whispered, “Do you still get Christmas presents if you live far away?”
Melted. I assured him that he just needed to make sure we knew where the house was and we’d be sure to deliver!
Last week at church, I asked the kids what they were hoping to get from their Christmas gift exchange at school. On different days each grade will have an exchange–not all on the same day, or it’s too much for parents’ budgets–and each child brings a gift worth about 50 cents or a dollar. To avoid spending some of that money on wrapping, they come to our house early in the morning and ask for my pro-wrapping skills of their presents. I’m locally famous for this. (And shuffling Uno cards using a “bridge.” It’s the little things that will take you to fame.)
When I asked the kids, they all hoped for a stuffed animal. All of them: a group of seven or so! The twelve-year-old girl, the seven-year-old boy. I looked up stuffed animals in Google images and we scrolled through: the teddy bears with the most popular, with dogs and cats in a close second.
The next week I asked what they thought their parents might like. I’ve shamelessly decided if we’re going to be getting this epic number of gifts to wrap and distribute, we might as well be getting what people need and want! Most of the kids were unsure, but thought a sarong or longyi would be wanted. Zwe Ne Na said he had no idea what his parents would want, but he wants a BALL! We’ll see what we can do about that 😉
And here it comes! The lists are being gathered this week, determining how many hundreds of gifts are to be organized. We’re borrowing a spare room at a friends house to store and wrap these hundreds of gifts–between the bread & flower business, the sewing project twice a week, and four afternoons filled with kiddos, we’re just plumb out of space!
Let the festivities begin!