shoeboxes | Keeping up with the Moys

One of our favorite times of the year has come and gone – Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing time! We collect items throughout the year for our packing during National Collection Week in November. (I shared about how we collect items in one of our previous posts (at the end of this post).)

Norm and I had taken part in packing shoeboxes even before our dating years (17ish years ago), and I’m glad it is one of the traditions we have kept as a family. I guess I didn’t document our shoebox packing adventures before 4 years ago, but here’s a look down memory lane:

We brought boxes to MOPS and Awana this year, and I just found out that some of our boxes are going to the Philippines and also to some restricted areas.
And it’s not just immediate family tradition, here are boxes that my sister and my brother packed this year too!

If you would prefer to just donate instead of pack a box, you can Build Your Shoebox Online anytime of the year.

The shoebox that a child receives is not only a gift of hope, but it is also a gift of good news. CLICK TO TWEET

More videos: Sharing God with a Gift | The Peace of Letting Go

Here are some great resources and spiritual impact stories to encourage you:

How to Pack a Shoebox – My girls love watching the Veggies every year.
Order Free Materials – Get shoeboxes to fill, and stickers too!
Follow Your Box – This is my favorite part!
Find Drop-Off Locations – If you are local (to me), our MOPS group collects boxes with Redwood Christian, and our Awana groups collects boxes with First Baptist.

Have you packed a shoebox before? What are some of your favorite items to include? Are you following your box? Where is it headed this Christmas?

You can read more of our Operation Christmas Child posts:
2010 – Shoebox Packing | Update
2011 – Operation Christmas Child 2011
2012 – Operation Christmas Child 2012 | Update
2013 – Operation Christmas Child 2013

This year we had Operation Christmas Child on our minds all year long. We did the same thing that we did last year, saving up a few items here and there. It helps to really connect these items that we send to the child who will be receiving it.

Our MOPS group collected 85 shoeboxes this year!! And we added the boxes that were collected to those collected by Redwood Christian for over 200 shoeboxes. 🙂 Can’t you just imagine the smiles on the faces of the 200 children who will be receiving these boxes? It might be the only gift that some of these little ones will receive all year. National Collection Week has come and gone, but if you weren’t able to pack a shoebox, it’s NOT TOO LATE!! Click on over to Samaritan Purse’s website to BUILD-A-BOX!

Some more exciting stuff about Operation Christmas Child…..
OCC was started in 1990, and this Christmas, the 100 MILLIONTH shoebox will be delivered! Not only that, but it will be delivered by one of my blogging friends who I serve with on the Inspired to Action team, Amanda! And….not only that, but the 100 millionth shoebox will be delivered in the Dominican Republic where our Compassion child Solissa lives!!

Wrapping paper, collected items, and shoeboxes, oh my!

Choosing their shoebox wrapping paper

Bracelets – we’ve got lots to share!

We divided the items into the 2 shoeboxes.

Emily’s Box

Melody’s Box

Choosing which toothbrushes to put in

Squish – our method to put as much as possible into the boxes is to put smaller items into the bigger items

It fits!

Squish some more

And all the stuff fit into Melody’s shoebox as well. 🙂

There were actually a few more items not pictured that we put in there as well. I wonder how they go through all those shoeboxes to check on items before sending them off. I’m hoping that one day we will be able to go to a collection center to volunteer. How fun would that be!?

We totally did ours early this year (at the beginning of October I think…??) and then I completely forgot to take a picture of the girls holding their boxes. 😦 But here they are filling in their letters: