Christmas

I wanted to post about our Christmas preparations. Due to the extreme poverty right outside our protective fencing, there are people who have so little, not-to-mention, have nothing for Christmas. Because we oversee some families in that situation, Aspen and I thought about what each family could use or might like and went and purchased things for them. I have written about Lovely many times but here is a picture of she and her kids and a friend. We gave them a cooler so that if we buy food for her in the future that needs to be kept cool, we will have somewhere to put it. We gave each of her kids a gift as well...a soccer ball and a Frisbee for her 12 year old son, Elijah. A nail filing set and nail polish for her 10 year old daughter, Abigail. And a barbie and doll house for her 6 year old daughter, Arwen. We also gave Lovely a new skirt. They have no Christmas tree and I don't know if the kids have ever gotten a Christmas present before so they were so excited that they already opened them. Her family has some needs that we weren't aware of when we bought them gifts so next week Aspen and I are going to take them to the mall (they haven't been there before) and buy them the shoes and things that they need. I'm kind of excited about it.
Aspen and I getting gifts for our Visiting Teaching families:

Here is a picture of Lovely's family:

We also go and visit a lady named Rosie. This is her house. She wasn't home after the second time of trying to deliver this to her so we had to leave it. She has a "guard dog" that is more afraid of us, surprisingly, since Aspen and I are afraid of dogs. But we got her some rice and a picture block of the temple and some sewing things because she is a seamstress.

I can't imagine living in the conditions that they all live in. At least they have an establishment to come home to, I guess, but the road to get to their houses are filled with litter, dead animals, and children of all ages who just run loose because they have nowhere else to go. There was a 2 year old alone on the side of the road today as I went to pick up Lovely's family for the ward Christmas Party!

I know that this is a way of life for people but it is so hard coming from the experiences that being near civilization brings you.

 

And separately, here are some pictures of my kids seeing Santa today and at the cupcake walk. (They obviously won):

And that is all.