The blessings of giving

Top 3 favorites for this Christmas; my 3 sisters and I jumping on my dads bed to wake him up Christmas morning would be at the top, next would be relaxing with family, the most family that has gotten together in years, and the next thing to top my list would be opening gifts for the children of Uganda!
This year with our upcoming trip (just over a month and half away!) we asked family that in lew of gifts we would like either gift certificates or cash for our trip or items for us to take to the children, oh boy did we get what we asked for!
I feel so blessed to have such a great family! My dad and step mom Debbie took it another step and did research on what the children in Africa would want and need and did they fit the bill! Oh and to top that they wrapped them all in maps from the pages of National Geographic! They gave chalk boards and chalk, play-doh, pencils, jump rope, frisbees, craft sticks, erasers and more! I can't wait to take all that with us to share and play with the kids!
We also were extremly blessed to recieve cash and gift cards for our trip... so excited in fact that we braved the mall the day after Christmas to do a little travel shopping! We got our insect repellant and clothes wash, than we ordered or mosquito nets!


The awesome wrap job!

Dennis loves opening presents

Feeling inspired and blessed

Again too much time has gone by... I need to blog more often!
The holiday times have just taken up all my time and I'm exhausted by the time I get home, I promise to spend more time at home and on my computer catching up with various things!
Okay so back to our trip!!!!!
Two fundraisers down.. and oh what great ones!
First we had the Santa Photos on last Friday December 10th, it was mainly during the day, so I wasn't able to get there until after 5pm, but luckily Dennis and Jason were there to help out along with Yvonne. Our fabulous photographer Amaryllis (here is her website: http://amaryllisimages.com/)was awesome!! She spent all day taking great photos and we had a real looking Santa, it was so much fun to see her work and her set up, wish I could have been there longer. Here is a friends son with our Santa that Amaryllis took;

We (I use we very loosely, we know that Amaryllis did most of the work for this event!) raised $743!!!!! Wahoo go team!

Last night was our next fundraiser... Beer for Books! What a blast, Jen was leading the team and set up some great bands, including Brandon from our group. I think we had a great turn out, even people that didn't know about our event bought raffle tickets for our numerous gifts that got donated to us! I can't believe we had so many great things! I feel super blessed too, I had some great friends and family come out and support me and our team. After getting lost for a while trying to find the place, we arrived and Lynsey and Justin were already there! So great to see their smiling faces! Thanks guys! My sister Shannon came with us, so nice to have her around now..... blessing in disguise there :) My friend Aja came, even though she couldn't find anyone to carpool with, she still came out, had a drink and supported us, so great! Our friend Matt came too, sad that Karen had to work, but she was there in spirit, I could feel it! Love you guys! Of course I got to spend time with three more of my favorite people, Dennis, Jason, and Shannon.... we are going to be a great travel team, and I know this will bring us all so much closer, love my friends!
My favorite thing about this event is that it was a great opportunity for our group to get together and hang out and get to know each other a little more. I really enjoyed that too. I can see so many great friendships forming from our group already. I felt a few connections on the first day and they just keep growing!
Beer for Books raised $863!!!! Awesome!

Jen was such a great announcer! Good thing we have someone in the group that liked to talk on the mic! I have better pictures coming soon!
Here is also a great pic of our group from our last meeting. Sure wish I would have had a warning so I didn't wear that bright neon pink shirt! I love it, but it sure doesn't go well with everyone else in the picture :)

Can't type anymore today... got my second set of Hep A and Hep B shots... and my arm hurt instantly, I think it was done being poked for the year! But we did get a prescription for sleeping pills, cause I'm sure we will need them for the long long long flight!

The fundraising has begun!!

I can't believe I am just now writing about our first personal fundraiser!
We had our shopping event on Sunday, knowing myself under-stress I'm sure I pissed off a few people making sure everything was going smoothingly, but in the end, it was worth it. The event went off with out a major hitch! The only bad thing is we didn't get as many people as we were hoping for :( but we did get lots of great "shoppers" including friends and family members! All the vendors donated their profits and than we split it between the four of us; Jason, Shannon, Dennis and I.
It did give us a great start on the fundraising platform. Lots more needs to be done. Hoping we will get some more during the holiday times too.
I did put up lots of left over baskets and household items I had laying around the house on craigslist to try and make more money too. I have already sold 3 candle holders for $30, good start!!!


The only pic I got of the baskets, I wish I would have taken more at the event, some great booths!!!!

Next up.. not sure, we want to do a bake sale, another open house, and a poker night in January.
The big thing is we owe $1300 each on December 15th.. better get on that :)

Our group has some really exciting fundraisers coming up, we are still raising the money for the library, we got our website up, and already have $2000 donation!
www.ugandamission2011.com

For the group we have a santa photo shoot on December 10th and a concert at a bar in Woodinville on the 15th, I will get more info!

Can't wait to help out on all of those too!