Hellobee

Here’s an ironic little tidbit for you all… I actually had this package all wrapped and boxed up, and sitting in my car, when we received the call that we had a court date. It had been there for a couple of days, waiting for errands to bring me near our post office. (The closest one is a good 15-20 minute drive from here!) Clearly, it was meant to be hand delivered! I love when fate/the universe/greater powers intervene like that!

As I mentioned in my last care package post, The Birthday Box, our holiday rule of thumb here is “Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read” and I stuck to that here as well. Again, I found that the biggest challenge was finding meaningful, yet cost-effective gifts for him. It was slightly easier to buy him presents this go around since our social worker had met with him recently… and when she told us about him, she gave us insights into his personality, as well as current size measurements. It was also a great experience for Mini Michelangelo to practice the “spirit of giving” by helping pick out the gifts. He’s already volunteered to help him open them too… although I think that may be just to get his mitts on them first. {wink} [Note: While we are lucky enough to bring this package to our son, many aren’t that lucky… so I thought I would also share that this all fit into a normal size box, and wouldn’t have cost any more to ship or process through customs than our other boxes.] Without further ado, The Christmas Care Package:

1. Something He Wants — Racing Cars. While it was still hard to choose a “want” for a child we hadn’t met yet, it was easily offset by the fact that our social worker had met him. She told us he was “go, go, go!!!” So we decided to buy him something that “go, go, goes!” Two actually. These wooden cars from Hape toys are nice and small, high quality, and FUN.

2. Something He Needs — Sleepers. It’s actually a little ironic that I bought him sleepers since some of the best ever pajamas in this house have come from Korea… but this one is tradition in our house. Every Christmas Eve you get new pajamas here… so Mini helped me pick out Pint-Sized pajamas for our package. You’ll notice he chose the elf sleeper from Crazy 8. He also talked me into the santa pajamas for himself, which I find hysterical since he’s clearly setting up the household hierarchy right out of the gate here. I’m also a sucker for anything orange and/or striped… so when I saw this sleeper from Old Navy on the clearance rack, I couldn’t resist!

3. Something to Wear — A “Holiday” Outfit. I adore dressing my little one in “little man” outfits for special days… and Christmas is no exception. I know that he probably won’t wear this on Christmas since his foster family doesn’t celebrate it… but here’s hoping that he wears it for our second meeting, or some other special day with his foster family. Or, maybe it will even come home with him on our next trip?! Regardless… it was fun to buy and send. The yellow cords and the plane shirt are both from Old Navy, and the gray sweater is from Target. And yes, I intentionally made it “non-Christmas” colors.

4. Something to Read — Books. Normally, we only have one book or “thing to read” under the tree… or, in the box… but this time was a little different. We picked out this Pet Tails book at a local baby boutique because so many of the staff raved about it. (And it is really fun!) But then we received raves from the foster family and the social worker on the “Under the Same Moon” book we included in the birthday box. (Recorded voices of Mama and Daddy are very, very much appreciated in this process.) So we decided to do that again, but with a holiday themed book. Mini Michelangelo chose “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” from Hallmark. Like last time, Mr. Paintbrush and I swapped reading the pages… while letting Mini add colorful commentary along the way. Case in point?! When I read “Christmas would need to be cancelled.” Mini inserted “OOOOHHH NOOO!!!” completely off the cuff. It was perfect. So he’s getting two books to read this year… Two books seems to be a trend with our care packages! We also printed out a current photo of our family and pasted it in the front cover, so he can refer to the photo as he’s hearing our voices. [Not pictured: A rudolph plush toy that we found to attach to the book.]

And that’s it! On one hand, it seems silly to bring him gifts when he {hopefully!} has less than a month there. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense to hand-deliver goodies that may very well make the journey home with him. And really, how could we NOT bring him presents when we are meeting him right before the holiday?! Answer : We couldn’t. Clearly. Especially since we had never imagined meeting him this year when all of this was picked out and wrapped up…

We very much hope that he likes each and every gift… even though he’s too young to understand the history or the background on it all yet!