I think my boys (at least the two older ones) are hitting that age where its hard to learn that material things are fun, but its not about getting the biggest and most expensive gift. I think its a very hard lesson for even adults to learn, so I really don't expect kids to fully understand, but we still try.

Even when its not Christmastime, we try to make a habit out of doing little things for people when we can. Sometimes we like to pay for the car behind us when we go through drive thru...that's the boys' favorite. We've found that when David and I do things like this on a whim, the boys seem to follow suit at other times. For example, this past summer, we were at the park. A little boy (about 4) was riding his bike with his younger brother. They were riding a little ahead of their dad, when the boy lost his steering and fell part way off the sidewalk. Without saying anything, both Austin and Ethan saw that his dad was further away than we were, and immediately ran to help him up and to see if he was alright. It wasn't a big deal to Austin and Ethan, but you could see that it took the boy and the dad by surprise.

Since the holidays have come along, we've done a few very small things to help others.

We went through Taco Bell just after Thanksgiving, and the boys thought the man behind us looked like he was having a bad day, so we paid for his meal. Like I said the boys love doing this, and always get excited and pumped about how people react.

Then, while David and I were out Christmas shopping (the morning after the first snow storm), we stopped to get some tacos. We ended up with extra, and decided to give it to the man on the corner holding a sign, asking for bottles/cans to return. When David approached him, he was being asked by someone just passing by what he does when the weather gets bad. The man said he does the same as any other night, and sleeps outside. I wanted to do more for him, and we talked about how its too bad you can't trust people enough to offer them your garage to sleep in during the winter.

Just the other day, we were all running errands to get gift cards for David's employee Christmas party. With all of the businesses going down here, a lot of them hire people to stand on the street corners to hold signs for advertisement. It was so cold that day. When we would get out of the car, our faces would hurt from the freezing wind blowing the snow. So we decided to buy one of the sign holders a coffee. I can't imagine having to accept a job standing out in winter weather, holding a sign for 8 hours of minimum wage. I feel so blessed that our family is still able to have a warm home and food on the table. Anyway, the boys decided they wanted to hand the man the coffee. It was such a good feeling watching the boys (just Austin and Ethan) walk up and hand it to him. They told him Merry Christmas, and the boys said he thanked them 3 times. We then discussed the feeling they got from just giving a cup of coffee. They mentioned that it felt better than getting a present, and Austin said he wanted to do it all day long. We ended up getting one more coffee, and the boys delivered it to another man. The looks on their faces was enough to make David and I feel like maybe we are doing something right here. ;)

Once we got home, everyone seemed to still be floating on that feeling. Austin and Ethan asked if they could go out and plow our driveway. When then came in about 2 hours later, they told us that they had also plowed many of the neighbor's driveways, and wouldn't take money from them when it was offered. By the next day, they had come up with their master plan. They would offer to replow driveways each time it snow, still for free, but if anyone offered to pay, they would accept a donation to go toward buying coffee for people standing in the cold. So far, they've collected $5.

Austin said, "We're offering to help people, so we can help more people".

I think they're getting it....