Christmas Cards

This is the first Christmas season that Caleb has really started to understand the "getting" part of Christmas. He looks through the toy magazines that come in the mail, he answers people when they ask him what he wants for Christmas, and he checks his stocking every day to see if anything is in it. To counteract all this "give me" focused energy, I ask him frequently what he would like to give other people for Christmas, particularly his friends. During one trip to Toys-R-Us, my plan sort of backfired, and he was very disappointed (complete with indignant tears) that I wouldn't buy all of the toys he picked out for his friends. After listening to me tell this story, a friend suggested that I cut out pictures of toys and help Caleb make Christmas cards for his friends. I thought that was a fantastic idea, so that is exactly what we did. Last night, Caleb and I went through a toy magazine and cut out pictures of everything he wanted to give to each one of his friends. Then I wrote "Merry Christmas, _______!" on the front of a vertically-folded piece of construction paper. Then we glued 2 or 3 pictures of toys inside each card and wrote a little note that said "If I could buy you a Christmas present, I would buy these for you!" The cards were completed with Caleb's signature (I helped him a little) and decorative Christmas stickers. Caleb is very proud of his little stack of cards and can't wait to hand them out to friends!