Celebrating Christmas In March

During Christmas our family talked about the 12 days of Christmas and decided to change that to the 12 months of Christmas and to do something each month as a way to give to others.  I had been talking to a lady who attends our church several months ago and she said she had recently been asked to start leading craft activities for the residents in an Assisted Living facility where she cleans.  I told her anytime she needed help to let us know and we would love to come and work with her.  She called on us for a bracelet beading project....she needed little hands and keen eyes to assist with the beading process :)

The girls spread out and helped anyone that was having difficulty threading the beads.

They talked about stuff like making cupcakes, gymnastics, magic tricks....

playing flutes, trumpets, and training animals......

Brad and I were in charge of tying knots and gluing the knots so the beads wouldn't slip off....see how well we worked together....ha!  Danielle took this picture of our hands....it's like we are doing surgery.  I handed Brad a coffee stirrer because he was trying to glue the knots with glue on his fingers and he was getting all sticky.

There were only two men who came to make bracelets with us....Elmer was one of them.  After the project, he wanted to take us on a tour.  He had made these stained glass windows for the chapel and he told us about cutting the glass and piecing them together from a pattern....beautiful work!

Karly was a bit of a hit....she helped three ladies complete their bracelets and they loved her glasses.  Karly was telling them all about how she wouldn't be able to do this without her new glasses :P  This lady really liked her.....they got the bracelet all finished and ready for tying, the lady let go of the string and Karly thought she still had a hold of it and pulled the string to pick it up.....well, they lost all the beads off the string and had to start over.  The lady said to Karly, "You should just tell me I am horrible!" and Karly said to her, "Oh no, that was all my fault, not yours" and she put the whole thing back together for her.  At the end, this lady just wanted to hug Karly.  (If only I could get her to treat her sisters this nicely :P)  BUT, I was proud of her for how she respectfully handled that situation.  

Now they want us to come back and bring our flutes, trumpets, magic tricks, cupcakes, gymnastics skills, singing voices and crazy animal tricks.....hmmmmmm.....we may be celebrating Christmas with them again :)

I have to get my eyes checked this week....I thought with how much everyone loves Karly's new glasses I would try hers on for style.....it's crazy that Karly's glasses actually fit me....I kind-of like these :)