Okay, y’all. Today is a quick post that might spread a little holiday cheer, I know it does for me. I got quite emotional writing this, not because of how beautiful it turned out (although it is lovely :)) but thinking about the moms who stay here during the holidays and what it must be like for them. It takes off all my burden instantly and heals things very quickly. This is our third year of decoration Family Promise Shelter For the holidays with your kids (and this year, like 12 of their friends :)). The building is a former La Quinta hotel that has been converted into a shelter that houses and rehabilitates 70 families (each family has its own room or adjacent rooms, depending on the size). The angels who work there help them find permanent housing and jobs, and while we were there we saw lots of kind and tender moments between families and staff (if you’re a social worker, God bless you, truly). It was recently renovated, and we helped furnish the lobby last year and had a few projects going on elsewhere, but adding the holiday layer was so fun, fast, and gratifying (and that could include my kids, too). Honestly, being able to do this is a huge gift to me, and it has become an afternoon I really look forward to during the busiest time of the year. This is a huge reset and reframe that I personally needed to take out what doesn’t matter and get back to what does, so thank you. I am very grateful to Family Promise for allowing me to bring this very respectable and excited group for a few hours after school last week. There’s more information at the end of the post about how you can help, if you’re able.
Lobby Pre-Holiday
Desk , desk chairs , woven bench , leather chairs
The lobby is newly updated and was a blank slate for us. a big slogan for most modern To gift furniture a few months ago. Grech helped bring it together, and it obviously doesn’t have accessories yet, but having good-looking furniture compared to donated random pieces makes a huge difference. We chose high-quality, easy-care pieces that look great together. The staff were very grateful.
first dining room
Although we haven’t furnished this room, it’s so nice that all the pieces match (they didn’t last year). It was difficult to figure out how to decorate all the rooms without putting anything on the walls (except a nail for a wreath which they approved). Being newly renovated, the operations manager didn’t want to put command strips or even blue tape on the walls, so we needed to get creative on the window and pillars. (Most people don’t know how to properly remove command strips, so we totally understand the fear of damaging new walls… I mean, I begged and promised at first, but ultimately our job was to make their lives easier, not harder, so we came up with some creative solutions.)
before the bonus room
The bonus room is for the older kids to do homework and hang out (plus it has pantry food for families to pick from behind a blue tarp), and they have a lot of programming, so they only asked us to do this corner, and then, nothing on the walls, but we could draw windows.
Plan
Gretch and I spent a few days shopping, and I got to plan special projects for the kids. Then we organized everything so that when the kids joined, it was organized (and not chaotic – the goal was to have the kids only be there for 2 hours). I needed easy, doable but still fun projects for them, so here are some I came up with:
- paper chains – Oh. There’s a real no-brainer here, and although we couldn’t put them on the walls, we were allowed to order them to be removed from windows or added to ceiling tiles.
- window paint – We created the template so it wasn’t a free for all, and they created patterns within the “ornaments” and then, you see, they went rogue, but it was very hard to stop them! Easy to clean up later, I promise.
- Magnetic Paper Trees for All Tables – Unpacking them and organizing them all (I thought these would also be easy to take down and store, taking up so little space).
- Decorate trees with curated and shatterproof ornaments.
- pillar fun – Grech and Marley figured out how to wrap elastic at the top of the columns to keep the lightweight ribbon in place without using tape 🙂
I also really wanted it to be easy to dispose of everything (paper chains) or store in an organized way per room, so that next year we could do the exact same thing without shopping (in the past most of the stuff we bought ended up being cluttered together so we gave all that to the families to use in their rooms, which they were very excited about and started fresh this year so it looked more pulled together). I wanted it to be easy to clean around, take off and put back on.
Window painting was the biggest hit. I got inspiration from IG and Gretch created a template for kids to fill out.
We created three different color palettes per room – a more traditional red/green/white in the dining room, a snowy winter wonderland in the lobby, and a colorful Dr. Seuss vibe in the bonus room.
We tried to keep the children isolated here so that the families could have privacy. In the past, some of the kids who lived here wanted to help, but I’m hypersensitive to the fact that most kids feel awkward around other kids (especially tweens and teens), so we were quiet and fast. Ninja Elves!
The kids were most pleased with this room (the colors were so fun). They had a fun dog training session (where kids can help train their own dogs – the shelter allows pets, which I think is pretty amazing), so we had to get out of here early, and I got to hear some kids screaming.
dining room
Caitlin also came over with her girls to help and she snapped some very quick photos to show you. It was 6pm, no light and no time to do style-to-camera, but you get the vibe 🙂 We set up groups of foldable paper trees on each table and drew pictures on all the windows. We used Posca paint markers and these thick markers (the internet told me they would wash off easily). Brian then hung these Santa hats from the corners of the ceiling tiles. Considering all the obstacles, it felt festive and high-impact.
We added (to) that potted tree in the corner Target) And two lamps On the computer table (which will stay permanently), along with some holiday village houses, holiday pillows and a throw. Then Grech found out how to hang these stars With paper clips from ceiling tiles. The tree we bought last year fits perfectly in this little corner, and we’ve used mostly blue, silver, and hits of burgundy (bow) on it.
I really didn’t want it to look messy or overly cluttered because it’s the first thing people see, and there can be a lot of deliveries, packages, and people, so we kept it to a minimum. bendable treeSome? Large Velvet NutcrackersAnd village.
bonus room
Last year, we bought it light bending nutcracker And PresentsWhich the children liked very much. They had a tree here, but as soon as we opened it up that day, we realized it had some pieces missing, so we went to Lowe’s and shopped group of trees (Literally they only had 6′ of trees left, so we added two smaller trees to fill the corner). But I think it turned out pretty cute!
Thank you so much to these elves for helping, but most of all thank you to the shelter for making me happy and giving me the gift of being able to help (and allowing my kids to be a part of it – my team could have probably done it faster and with less mess without them, but being able to let them help was a big deal to me). The most rewarding part of it was that the social workers (who are legitimate angels on Earth) were so happy, kept commenting on how festive it felt, and how it was getting them into the spirit of the season. Social work is famously a difficult career, with a lot of turnover, so creating a place where they can enjoy working has been a major inspiration for me. We tried to keep a very small footprint and not disrupt families (or make other kids feel awkward in any way), so we mainly stayed in the dining room, but the staff told me that many families and kids were very happy (a few moms came up to thank us). While Family Promise is providing a warm, safe place to stay (and eat) — so many volunteers come every night to cook, I know spending the holidays here isn’t their norm. I think about mothers a lot. Like, if I’m overwhelmed during the holidays, desperate to stay on top of everything while still giving my kids a magical Christmas, how will they feel?
If you are looking to help or donateThey wanted me to let you know that gift card donations are most appreciated (you can drop them off or mail them). They have a very large inventory of toys and clothing for younger children that parents shop from, but tweens and teens are more difficult, so moms may want to give gift cards to Amazon or Fred Meyer (which is across the street) in $25 increments so they can shop for their kids or give them the autonomy to buy their own gifts. If you’re local, they’re also looking forward to receiving gift bags because they save time on wrapping. And they’re planning to provide hot cocoa kits (just a mug with hot cocoa) for everyone at the shelter this Christmas, so donations would be wonderful for that too. In-person drop-offs are great—no appointment necessary, but preferred drop-off times are Monday-Friday 10am-6pm, or packages can be contacted at the following address:
family promise charity
Family Promise of the Tualatin Valley
11460 SW Pacific Highway
Tigard, OR 97223
The director asked me to thank you – he said he got a lot of donations from you after we posted about it during the snap shutdown – so thank you very much, very, very, very much. I am so overwhelmed with gratitude right now for being able to help and for what an online community is willing to give. Lots of love to you for reading, giving and just being here. Thank you. xx
*After photo by Caitlin Green
