~ Deck the Halls – Christmas 2007 ~
On December 11th at lunch time, we got all the children and staff together (those children who came home for lunch) and took our annual Christmas picture. Twenty Two of the children were not here… our High School and College students and maybe it was a good thing in that we had a pretty difficult time getting everyone as tight in around the tree as we could, to still make a fairly legible picture.
Every year at about this time the children all get together and decorate our “Play Room” for Christmas. This year we asked Michelle Goddard to take charge of overseeing the decorations and everyone had a great time.
In the pictures above, Julie Zhang Yan Yan (she got to come home from college for the weekend last week) is setting up to do her art work on the blackboard. Of course Hank and Ben had to give her some advice as to how things should be done… always a team effort!
Each year the children come up with their own theme for the chalk drawings on the black board and we never cease to be amazed at their abilities.
Julie took it all in stride and came up with a really neat design for this year. We always encourage them to draw as much as they can on the black board so when it comes time for our Christmas dinner and social, it doesn’t look quite so bad as it would with just a bare blackboard.
A couple more closeups of some of the art work these children can do! They never seem to run out of ideas for their art work.
Peter (on the left) is getting his hands into the garland and knowing him he will probably figure out a new way to put it up at some unique place…
On the right, Vincent and Michelle are having some kind of battle over something… Ben and Michelle Goddard (interning at the Gongyi Home of Hope in preparation to manage HOH #3) have really developed a great report with all the children and are wonderful to have around to help out.
Lydia Kang Lin Lin is adding her own personal touch to the artwork (left) while Jenny Yang Jin Feng and Rena Ren Xiao Na (picture on right) add moral support by watching, smiling, laughing and encouraging the others!
Maybe there was a little overkill with the balloons but they sure add a lot of color to everything. Actually, the play / study room has a black board on each end so the balloons are going on the blackboard on the other end of the room to sort of hide it and give the place more color!
Michelle is giving Jenny and Rena some tips on how to do something… while Peter is still trying to figure out what to do with the garland. (Left) On the right Larry Zhou Zhi Huang is taking things in for the time being. This is his first Christmas at the Home of Hope so everything is new to him. We often wonder what these children think in the beginning since they have never known of anyone putting a tree inside their house and then putting all sorts of pretty things on it…
Wow… just wait till the gifts show up under the tree on Christmas Eve!
Abby Joy and Mary (left and right) got into the decorating… but they sort of got the point of decorating a little confused as they proceeded to decorate themselves.
Ron and Caleb (above left) and little Beau (on the right) learned from Abby Joy and Mary and soon all the nursery babies were decorating themselves… and helping their brothers and sisters that were too little to do it themselves as you can see in the pictures below… Rachel (below left), Jacob (below right), Aaron (two rows down, left) and Daniel on the right.
Tony (above left) and Luke (above right) couldn’t resist following suit after seeing what the nursery babies did! Really cute how these guys think!
Vincent and one of his class mates from school who came to visit, congratulate themselves for a job well done (above left) while Julie and Linda stand back and admire the work that has been done this afternoon!
We are sure proud of all our children at the Home of Hope and never cease to be amazed at how far they have come from the totally adverse situations they all found themselves in prior to joining the Home of Hope.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Posted: December 12th, 2007 under Christmas, Special Activities.
Tags: , Christmas, decorating, special activites