its lovely weather for a sleigh ride together

santa and his elves (sports mentors)

yes its that time of year again when the days are sunny, warm and bright and we dust off the 'good olde sleigh' again and tow it, along with father christmas, around the community of grabouw.

if you have followed this blog for any length of time you will know that our annual sleigh rise has become a tradition at the village of hope, to see the faces of the children as they catch sight of santa passing their homes is a real treat and to hand out a few sweets brings so much joy to those who won't have chance to visit santa's grotto in the local mall.

santa in site view

we know that christmas isn't all about presents and a funny white bearded guy who supposedly comes from the north pole (no that's not you trondar) but to know that this one hour of fun can bring so many smiles from all ages of people is worth doing and we trust that this random act of kindness will be seen as our continued desire to serve the town of grabouw via our village of hope children's unit, our sports outreach and rainbow smiles club and confirm that the work we do via thembacare has a community feel about it.

santa in iraq informal settlement

our pictures hit the headlines of the christmas edition of the elgin grabouwer, whom we are so thankful to for highlighting the work that we do in the wider community throughout the year.

normal scenes behind the sleigh!

this year santa (once again played by the ever willing and somewhat typecast johan) was joined by his little elves (the not so little arron, shana, mel, maz and barbara, as well as my mum and dad, shannon and amanda from the thembalitsha fundraising team) and it was also great to see some of our sports mentors come out with us on this ride for the first time, it seemed like they really enjoyed it.

so its with a thankful and blessed heart that we wish you a very merry christmas from all at the village of hope.