giving days

New plan this year, something we heard about from Sunday morning friends of ours who are parents of 6 kids (all grown now).

Giving Days.

For the five days leading up to Christmas each child gets their special day to GIVE their gifts.  I latched on to this idea and loved it from the minute I heard about it - a sweet way to let each one shine in giving, and honestly, these guys go out of their way to pick something special for each sibling and parent.  But their budget is quite limited, and their little gifts can tend to be overshadowed by the piles under the tree on Christmas morning.

Last weekend Lydia came bouncing out of her room with a newly wrapped gift and exclaimed, "I can't wait for my giving day!"

Yep, this is golden.

The kids worked out who got which day, and Luke was up first.  He was SO PROUD and EXCITED!

It's taking a little juggling of schedules, but each day we have set aside a time for the giver to steal the show.

Day 2: Isaac.  He was the most hesitant to embrace the giving day plan.  {two of mine are low-change people, oh Lord bless them in this high change life!}.   Happily, Isaac's initial reluctance disappeared and he was fired up (in a very Isaac-way).

His gifts were awesome.  It's fun to see the kids mature in their giving and he's set aside convenience store treats for well thought through gifts.  He gave me a beautiful vase (I already had some fresh flowers and moved them right away); Julianna a desk organizer (goodness that girl has an amazing amount of clutter on her desk!), Luke got a yak horn that makes loud trumpet noises when he blows it (souvenir from our November trip to the mountains).  The big three went together and bought a chess board for Matt and decided to gift it as part of Isaac's day.  And just to be hilarious, he also wrapped a roll of toilet paper as a gag gift for Matt.  The kids laughed about this all afternoon.  It was awesome.

Next up: John Paul.