Teaching by Example

As some of you may have read on my mom's blog, we've "adopted" a boy from the Salvation Army's giving tree. We chose a boy around the same age as Jack because we know just what little boys that age like. As we have been shopping for him, Jack looks at the items we've chosen and informs us that they are for him. We know that he's too young to really get it but we tell him that we are buying these things for another little boy, a little boy whose mommy and daddy don't have a lot of money. He seems ok with it. He gives up the toys and the clothes really easily. He doesn't fuss at all about it. He repeats what we've said, "These for little boy? They not for me?" then he says, "Ok." and puts them down and moves on to his next conquest. We repeat the whole thing several times before he loses interest.
I feel like we're very fortunate to be able to buy for another child. We've been through a few lean Christmas' the past few years. We haven't been able to give much to our family let alone anyone else. I'm grateful that we both have good jobs and that we are doing so well. I want to share that with others.
As far as Jack is concerned, we have kept it really simple. We bought him a bed tent to go on his brand new big boy bed. We bought him a tv tray that has legs that he can use to play with playdough or legos. We also bought him a plate/flatware set and some new playdough. I might get him some new clothes but that's it. I think my DH is going to buy him something special just from him. We've never bought each other gifts before, we've always chosen something we'd both like and bought that. Last year it was a stereo and the year before it was a dvd player. Usually nothing more than $75.00. This year we are going to spend more I think. We are going to buy a new camcorder because the one we have is a hand-me-down that cannot operate unless it's plugged into the wall. It really limits what we can film. I'd like to get one that records onto dvd's since we're not likely to buy an updated one within the next ten years or so after this one. I've even mentioned that if anyone gets us a gift we'd love to have a gift card to Walmart to help pay for it.
Of course we don't expect that, we're going to use my DH's Christmas bonus to buy it. I'm hoping he gets that before Jack's Christmas program so that we can record it. Jack's going to be the "lead" because he's the only boy that has any grasp of the songs at all. We're helping him with the songs at home; Go Tell It on the Mountain and Jingle Bells. But every time we sing them he tells us, "No, sing Twinkle Little Star, we like that song." Or he wants us to sing "ABCDEFG, MOM!" So we're working on it. Anyhow, I'm tired so I'm off to bed.
Ciao!