Service

I'm so far behind, I'm having a hard time getting motivated to complete these posts. I do want to document what we did, so I'm warning you, these next few posts may be brief.... and not very creative.

One of our favorite days was when we volunteered at the Boise Rescue Mission warehouse. The guy in charge there knows what he's doing and makes it fun. When you first arrive everyone is asked to "sign in". Their sign in sheet, is literally a bed sheet. When it's filled, they hang it high on the warehouse wall, along with several others.

Grandpa Waite had come to town for Christmas, and was staying with us, so he came along to help. (Rylee was at choir, of course!)

We were just a part of the big group that showed up that night. There was probably 50-60 people there to help that night.

We got to help fill "food boxes". We formed an assembly line, beginning with someone opening paper grocery bags (grandpa's job), then someone put in canned fruits, then veggies, then a few fresh potatoes and onions, then dried beans/stuffing and finally some sort of boxed dessert (cake mix/brownies/muffins/etc.).

In preparation for our Annual Smullin Service Scavenger Hunt, we made popcorn snowmen again.

We put these cute snowmen on the door handles of the families who donated.

Our donation collection was a success!

Our favorite thing collected were the frozen turkeys...several were donated this year.

Lesson learned: Keeping the area of collection localized is critical. This year I opened up donation to Facebook and received lots of great response all over the valley. I underestimated how long it would take to collect everything. Keeping it simple is the way to go. :)

This night, our service focused on the Humanitarian Center.

We made felt puppets...

and wove hats on plastic looms.

We also had intentions of making plastic canvas blocks and taggy blankets, but ran out of time.

The kids all had a good time weaving the hats. Taylee was especially loving it. She even said out loud that she wished she had her own loom to make hats. She committed to start saving her money to buy some.

Little did she know... Jason and I had already purchased a set for her, for Christmas. We couldn't wait for her to open them... we knew she was going to LOVE them! :)