Christmas at Walmart

   Last night I went to Walmart. I went with my oldest. I was pretty tired after a long week but we had a mission. One was to get her new gum boots. We live in town but we are farm people at heart and so we must have gum boots that fit ~ that and it rains so much here ~ and her feet have far surpassed my size now so she had nothing that fit.
When we walked into Walmart the first thing I saw was live little green trees with silver sparkles sprayed all over them and I was almost convinced that I liked them ~ but when I shook my head and looked again...I didn't. Good try Walmart! You almost got me!
   Our main purpose for going to Walmart was to fill a shoe box. My daughter's school participates in Samaritan's Purse's Christmas shoe box initiative. You fill a shoe box with gifts for a child who would not otherwise receive a Christmas gift in a country where there is lack.  Then you enclose seven dollars on the top and check a little box as to what age group it is for and drop it off at the designated drop off place. She has done this before but this year things were a bit different. I had come across a blog post where someone had observed children receiving the shoe boxes and she had written what would be super helpful and appreciated  as people often send things they maybe dont want or things that are scary to the children unintentionally or things like cars with tiny wheels that wont work. So months ago I had written a list in preparation and this year I was really inspired. We went to Walmart with my list and started in the soap section. We got a bar of soap and a soap holder. We then got a new tooth brush and toothbrush holder. We got a pick, comb and two pretty head bands, nail clippers and sun glasses. After that we were suddenly in the Christmas section.
   Walmart does NOT disappoint ~ not in the glitter department anyway! My oldest picked up a hot blue bird with feathers, glitter and sequins and told me it was for your hair. I tried not to smile and told her I was pretty sure it was for a Christmas tree but I could imagine that she would love to clip this bird (about half the size of her head) into her hair. She argued again that it was for her hair and tried to put it IN her hair so I said we should move on. We looked at bowls but I decided it would take up too much space and we went and chose a tiny but bright flashlight and batteries. Then we went to the boots section and she got zebra print gum boots with a wide stripe of red at the top. Yup...her and I have very different taste and that's okay (sort of). After this big decision was made we got my husband socks. It is sort of an inside joke but the night before he had given me a card and in it he had thanked me for putting his socks away. I do a lot for him and one of the things I do is making sure his socks don't have holes and keeping his sock drawer organized. He doesn't necessarily even realize that and I pointed it out quite emphatically a couple days ago..hence the card...and hence the new socks as some of his are holey.
   After we chose socks we went and picked out a beautiful but small journal, pencils, a pencil case, pens (red,green, black and blue) because they do not have good quality pens usually available, pencil crayons, felts, erasers, pencil sharpener, calculator, and more. Then we came around a corner and ran into my in laws. My heart stopped for a moment and that was my 'Walmart moment,' it far surpassed the blue bird in my daughter's hair argument. I said hi awkwardly and we had a couple moments of chit chat and then we parted ways. My in laws and I are from different worlds and I'll leave it at that. They are wonderful in their own way.
   After this we ventured back into the Christmas section and chose some sparkly snow flakes that could be hung up that were flat and could easily fit in the shoe box. This is for Christmas! Then my daughter found a hot pink sparkly mask also with feathers that she insisted was an actual mask for your face. She thought you clipped it to the front of your hair. I insisted it was for the tree and we started arguing again..she once again tried to demonstrate and I knew it was time to go!
   When we got home I packed the shoe box. I realized how excited I was to do this when I was gushing over everything I had bought to my husband! I felt like I was thinking of so many helpful things I could fit in there. This box is for a 10-14 year old girl and that is a pretty broad age range so I wanted to include things for a less mature girl and then things that a more mature girl would appreciate.
I put a Canada Flag post card on the bottom of the box with the journal, then the soap in the soap holder and the tooth brush in the tooth brush holder. I put stickers we had also purchased along the sides with the snow flakes and wrapped nail clippers and sun glasses in two body cloths I had bought from Norwex to send. Norwex body cloths are anti bacterial and they have little hooks on them so they are easy to hang up. After that I put in two skipping ropes (I forget to mention these before), the head bands, and everything else. When I packed the pencil case I put in a whole bunch of different sizes and strengths of rubber elastics and thumb tacks to hang up the snow flakes. I also wrapped the pencil case in hair elastics to make it more compact and I added paper clips to the pencil case and some chalk. We ended up having room to put a key chain sized Beani Boo that was soft, cute and endearing, and a super pretty lacey pearly type head band that I feel would make any 10 -14 year old girl's heart happy.
   I feel like if I got this shoe box for Christmas I would be very happy at that age!!!  Everything in that box is practical and helpful yet pretty and special. My daughter ended up getting upset at me because I was packing it and she wanted to. However she has packed so many through the years and I was so ridiculously excited about it that I did it. This morning she wrote a letter for it and we also put Christmas cards in it too. I feel like I packed an awesome Christmas box and I hope the girl who gets it is so so SO blessed because it blessed me so much to pack it. It is funny the things that get me excited. Craft fairs...and apparently packing a shoe box. I am still feeling high from it today. It is winking at me from the counter and I just want to make about fifty more.If you have a chance you should pack a box. It is super fun! Well it is if one of your love languages is gift giving...which apparently one of mine is. xo

                                                            Here are the boots :)

                                              The finished shoe box (we did not wrap it)

                                                        What it looks like inside

                                                        The Festive inside of the lid :)