MCC Sale!

Last weekend was the West Coast Mennonite Relief Sale (MCC Sale). Our family loves to go every year! This year we went on Friday night to enjoy German sausage, homemade pie and ice cream, perusing the items in the Ten Thousand Villages tent, watching a local man make brooms (super cool...the kids were amazed), sitting in the antique auction for a bit, and looking at art by local Mennonites. The art room also had a table with children's artwork, which included pictures by Audrey and Isaac! I smiled all weekend as I watched Audrey run from person to person that she recognized, giving them a smile and saying hello. Yup, she's already got this MCC sale thing down!

Although we were at the sale until almost 10 o'clock on Friday, we woke up before the sun on Saturday morning to be at the Fresno Pacific track by 6:45 a.m. to run/walk in their annual Run for Relief. Randy ran the 10K race, finishing 3rd in his age category! Audrey ran the 2 mile with her Auntie Christa, both of them crossing the finish line in under 20 minutes! Way to go gals! And I walked the 2 mile track with Isaac and my friend, Kristen. Kristen and I both pushed jogging strollers, she pushed her 3-year-old son. I pushed Violet. Although Violet is fully capable of walking the 2 miles herself (we walk a mile to school and back every day), I figured she'd be tired from the late night prior. I'm so glad I brought it. Although Kristen and I, along with our kids, finished last in the 2 mile pack, we beat all the 10K runners (not true last year)! After the race we headed over the pancake breakfast, then wandered around to the Kids' World area, back to Ten Thousand Villages, and into the quilt auction. Even though Randy wasn't with me (he had to leave after breakfast to go to a work function from 9-3), I managed to sit in the auction for almost 3 hours! The kids enjoyed wandering around the mezzanine, crawling in and through benches with their new found friends (children of other mothers that were interested in watching the quilt auction)! Once the kids had had enough, we left the gym for one more loop around the campus, a fabulous lunch of authentic carne asada tacos (there a quite a few Latin American Mennonite Bretheren, LAMB, churches in the Valley), and a trip to the used book sale where each kid picked out a book for a quarter! By the time we pulled into our garage at 2:45 Violet was napping soundly in her carseat and the other two were looking ready for some down-time. Whew! What a weekend! And, praise the Lord, the sale raised over $200,000 for world relief!

Well, Fresno isn't the only town to have an MCC sale, there are many sales all over the U.S. that raise funds for world relief. If you want to know more about MCC, click here. If you want to find the sale nearest you, click here.