All the stores have been stocking their shelves with Christmas since October and the grocery store had a Salvation Army bell-ringer before Halloween – what’s up with that?
I refuse to think about Christmas before Thanksgiving, except for Toys for Tots. Cowboy is in the Marine Reserves, which helps out with the toy drive, and one of my child care moms is heavily involved in Toys for Tots she’s the executive vice president of our area’s official Toys for Tots coordinating organization, so I’ve got two personal reasons to support Toys for Tots.
Last year Executive Vice President Mom asked if they could film the children in my program for a Toys for Tots commercial, and of course I agreed. To get ready for the Big Day I cleaned the main floor like a madwoman because we didn’t know where they’d want to film, EVP Mom bought and wrapped presents for the children to open on camera, and all of the parents signed release forms so their children could be filmed.
I was a little very nervous about the filming and imagined all kinds of disasters like the babies screaming inconsolably or having blow-outs at the same time, the older ones running through the house like banshees, puking from excitement or freezing in terror of the big camera and bright lights, the cats photobombing the kids or puking or worse! in the middle of filming, the toilet backing up, the sink exploding, etc, etc, etc.
Luckily everything went really well, especially considering they gave a bunch of kids age three and under wrapped presents and said “Hold these, but don’t open them yet.” I thought the children were going to explode with excitement, but they didn’t. Even better, none of them opened their presents until they were told to. But best of all was the look on their faces when they opened the presents. EVP Mom did a great job picking out the perfect toy for each child – they were all thrilled!
Ironically, after all the cleaning, the worry, the time spent picking the perfect looks-nice-and-I-really-can-work-in-it outfit, and making sure my face and hair were halfway decent, my head never made it into the frame.
I was the headless childcare provider – too, too funny!!
Take a look:
Next time you’re out and about, pick up a toy or two for your local Toys for Tots.
