Thursday, December 18, 2008

We decided to celebrate Christmas early with the guys this year since we are going to be gone on the actual day...




Besides it being the night before their last day of finals... we had an amazing time. Our church (for the 2nd year!) donated an incredible amount of gift cards so we could buy gifts for the guys. It was such a sweet time together. I'm feeling more and more sentimental as we get closer to graduation day... so it was hard not to shed a few tears. Especially after reading the card they gave us that said...

You've given me
more happy days
than I can count...


and I love you

in more ways
than I can say.

It was one of those cards where they could record their voices. They each recorded their name and then said... "We love you!" I cried. That was by far the best gift we could have ever received.

Another thing we did differently this year was Secret Santa. We reserved a few of the Wal-Mart gift cards we received so they could shop for each other. They insisted on adding our three names into the mix as well. That was really fun... and a little crazy since we were all shopping for each other in the same store at the same time.

Fred ended up with Carter's name and knew from the time he drew his name what he was going to get him. Carter was so excited that he was shaking when he opened up the fire truck. He took it to bed with him that night and then I eventually had to go up and take it away because he kept pushing the buttons that made the lights and sirens go off.

I got Tyre a basketball, Tyre got Jeff headphones and a poster that's a text message dictionary, Carter gave me hot chocolate and little mugs, J gave Dan socks and headphones, Steven gave Fred a model car, and Dan gave Steven a bag of baseballs.



Another special part to the night was their stockings. About a week ago a Young Professionals organization held a fundraiser for Joe's Place. They asked us for gift ideas for the guys. One thing that Dan and I have had on our minds for the last couple of months is Letterman's Jackets. The 3 seniors have all been very involved with sports. They've never talked about the jackets... but we knew it would be a special thing for them to have as they wrap up their high school years. The group ended up raising enough money for a jacket for each of the 4 guys (Ty's will be a winter coat from a store of his choosing). Dan printed off pictures (thanks for the idea JL!) and put them in envelopes in each of their stockings. They went nuts when they opened them! So... when everyone is back from break we'll be heading to the store to order them. I can't wait!

I couldn't leave out Carter opening his stocking full of $ store treasures! :) He was just as excited as the guys with his stocking.

It was the perfect night to end our semester with these 4 special guys.

2 comments:

Amy said...

incredible group, alyssa. you and dan are such blessings for these guys. i love these posts.

Ann Louise said...

That's beautiful.