A Nice Note From a Student

Patty received this nice note from one of our High School students for Christmas:

Dear Patty,
When we barely started to go to Farm Drive, I thought you were really nice and before I thought you were just nice to us because we were new but while the coarse of the time I saw you and all the leaders were just really nice to all of us. I know I don't really go to church but I have learned to just leave all my faith to God and He will lead me to my correct path. He has taught me to believe in Him and never doubt and even though sometimes you end up with questions at why things happen He then with the coarse of time gives me the answer. Thank you soo much for all you have done for me and my family. We all enjoy having Farm Drive in our life. May you and your family have a great Christmas!
Love
Crystal Perez

Gary also received a nice note from Crystal. All of this to say we are very blessed and we are happy knowing we are exactly where God wants us to be.

Trip to Old Town Sacramento

One of our trips during the Christmas break was to Old Town Sacramento. We took the kids to the State Capitol. Here is a picture of the Capitol to prove that we were there.

We came across a guy who had a pickup that just came down the from the mountains and he had fresh snow in the back. He let the kids take some and start a little snow ball fight.

And of course we had to stop and eat lunch at Fanny Ann's. We had fun outside the restrooms watching the kids go in the wrong bathroom! Look closely at the signs!

We stopped by a Russian shop. The shop worker just came from Russia a few months back and entertained the kids with a few magic tricks. They loved him. Patty got to buy some cool nesting dolls so she was happy too.

The one room school house was open so it was nice to show the kids what is was like over 100 years ago.

On the way back we had to stop by Leatherby's Ice Cream shop and stuff our faces!

A stop by the Governors office in the Capitol.


Outside the Train Museum.

A Few Other Events

December had us going on more than just a few day trips. The main reason we do these activities is to build relationships. We were able to get some free tickets for the Holiday Train of Lights on the Niles Canyon Railway. We had about 20 kids that we took on the train.

Santa made a visit on the train.

Some of the group in front of our engine.
While the kids were out of school we also took a trip to the mountains to one of the Christmas tree farms and picked out and cut a tree for the Center. Everyone got to take a few cuts on the tree.


On an earlier post we showed the younger boys and a night out playing the Wii. While they were doing that the younger girls went over to Lucy's house for a night out. They wore their pajamas, played games, had pizza and watched Mary Poppins!


Yet another fun day. . . Ken Caveney loves to do Geocaching and wanted to take kids out and show them how to do it. Gary bought a GPS and they went out looking for the cache. You use a GPS loaded with locations and you use them to find the cache (treasure). Once you find the cache you sign a book that is inside the cache. Below is one of the caches they found. We will be doing more geocaching as the kids had a blast! We really like the fact that you have to use your brain to find these things.

High School Christmas Party

The High School Group (the Loft) from Hillside Church threw a Christmas party for the kids of Farm Drive. We took them to the church for some games as you can see below:


Then after this we jumped into a bus for a little trip to the Sonoma Chicken Coop for some chocolate fondue.


As with all kids the fondue will end up in places it is not designed for! The kids had a blast. Thank you Hillside High School Youth Group!

Annual Farm Drive Christmas Store

This week, we had one of our largest Christmas stores EVER!! The kids normally go through and pick one gift for each member of their family, and one for themselves. This year, we were able to let them each get THREE extra gifts. You could see the smiles of joy on their faces!! We had a whole bunch of volunteers and we were able to assign a “personal shopper” to each kid! The shoppers carried their gifts while they continued to shop. What a special time.

After getting their gifts, the kids went to our “Wrapping Stations”, where other volunteers helped the kids wrap the gifts for their families. What fun!! I have included a couple of pictures so that you can see what a good time the kids had.

Before pictures!



And then the customers showed up!







Thanks to the volunteers that showed up to help. We couldn't have done it without you and to all those who donated the gifts! The kids and their families really appreciated this.
Word had spread around and we had a number of first time volunteers. We even had the CFO of a large corporation (Roche) show up and helped!

Wii Night for Younger Boys

While the younger ladies had a Pajama and movie night, we had some of the younger boys up to our apartment to play Wii Mario Cart. 13 boys had pizza and played a round robin tournament. Below are a few of the pictures from the night.

These guys have been bugging us for awhile to have a Wii night just for them and not with the older boys. Since Patty was going to be out with the girls this presented us with an opportunity to do it now. We only had 4 signed up to play at 4:00 but when I came home at 5, 11 guys were waiting to play! A few more showed up and game on!

The challenge was that only 4 guys can play at a time. So what to do with the other 8 guys? Fortunately the games are not very long so they can switch off. One thing they learned is patience because they have to take turns so everyone gets a chance.

Gary has never played Mario Cart before so we had some kids teach him how to drive! I was able to record it for all to see!

Ice Skating in Downtown San Jose

Last Sunday we took some of the kids to the ice skating rink which is downtown. It is near Christmas in the Park. We got some discount tickets through Groupon but we had to use them by Thanksgiving. Most had not ice skated before but a few of them have experience with roller blades which helps a lot with balance!

Of course, those without much experience landed on the ice quite a few times!

But they all had a lot of fun. You can tell by their smiles.



Here is the entire group that went ice skating. Patty, Gary and Ruben observed. They were not as adventurous as Pete. Afterwards we went to the Spaghetti Factory for a nice big lunch.