I am thinking about what to get my darlings for Christmas. I have already begun sharing their "lists" with relatives. By the time I have shared these ideas I often find myself out of ideas for us the parents. Growing up, my parents usually gave the best presents and I patiently opened the others while anticipating the ones from mom and dad.
As a parent now, I feel the grandparents and others give really appropriate and joyful gifts and perhaps I could use this season to give other kinds of gifts. Since we live in the boonies and lead a fairly quiet scheduled life, sometimes I feel that their experiences and our shared experiences are perhaps a bit lacking. They are at an age now that taking them places has become much less challenging. (no diaper bags, or sippy cups, or strollers required)
I have thought about Samaritan's purse and the shoeboxes we could fill. They would certainly enjoy the dollar store, but I don't really want a gift to be about shopping and I want them to have an experience that is at least a little out of the ordinary.
This summer we adopted our first humane society animal. Mouser. He is great. We had a lovely time meeting him and spending time at the human society. I am thinking that I could incorporate that into a present. At the moment...I'm thinking we can gather some blankets and towels from the recesses of our cupboards and rubbermaids and buy extra cat/dog food and go spend a morning or two visiting the animals. It would provide immediate giving of some our own stuff, it would provide meeting new people/animals (which my kiddos always need practice with) and mostly, provide a really nice opportunity to experience something bigger than us and have the shared memories to chat about later. Not to mention who knows what kind of topics we will get to discuss on the way home :)
Any thoughts about this?
Any other suggestions?
2 comments:
My very favorite thing is the Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog. It works just like any catalog with pictures, descriptions and prices, but instead of choosing stuff to stuff your house with stuff, you are choosing things like Jesus Loves Me stuffed lambs for kids who made it through natural disasters or boxes of Bibles and Christian literature for new Christians hungry for God's word all over the world. You can choose to send your money to help build a church in Sudan or buy a goat to provide a family in Ethiopia with enough milk to keep them healthy. I feel like I'm doing something more tangible than just writing a check. Benton loves looking through it and it is a reminder to him that while he is worried because he doesn't have any Pixoes at his house, other kids have much more important things to worry about. He doesn't really get it just yet. He is only four, but I think this is a great antidote for the selfishness and greed we are all so prone to this time of year.
Find it online here: https://giving.samaritanspurse.org/c-7-gift-catalog.aspx
Great idea Kari- I think that your kids would love that!
I think that's exactly what we are supposed to do- be creative with training our children's character. The scriptures confirm that that is exactly what God wants us to do.
Hope you guys have a wonderful Thanksgiving. By the way, Chloe would love to see Ady again...
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