A little Christmas story

During this Christmas season I wanted to try to get the girls to think about others a little bit. They are so focused on themselves and what they want for Christmas. I thought buying presents for two children from an angel tree would be a good lesson for them. After church one Sunday, while Eric was at the habitat house, I started to tell them we were going to go shopping for presents for some little kids who didn't have as many things as they did. I tried to explain that God has given us a lot of nice things but not everybody in the world are as blessed as we are. Some children don't get many presents for Christmas so we can help a little kid have a good Christmas by buying them some gifts. I couldn't even get my "lesson" out before they started asking if they were going to get something at Target too. Lyla even tried to argue with me about whether or not some kids don't have many toys. After several minutes of this "pleasant" conversation I gave up. Maybe they're not old enough to grasp this concept yet. Maybe they have to do something more concrete. Maybe buying things for an unseen person is too abstract for them. Maybe next year.

About a week later, I was putting Grace to bed. Grace is a deep thinker and really works things over and over in her mind. Well, she had evidently been thinking about our conversation. During this same time, she had been trying to work through in her mind about how Santa and his elves are real. So, that night, here is part of our conversation.....

Grace: Mom, I've been thinking lately.
Me: Oh yeah? What are you thinking about tonight?
G: You know how you said some kids don't have very many toys at Christmas and they need us to buy some toys for them?
Me: Yes...
G: Well, does Santa bring our toys to us on Christmas morning?
Me: Yes...(I can see where this is going)
G: Well, if Santa brings our toys to us, then why wouldn't he bring the same number of toys to all the kids in the world? Why would he only bring a few to some kids and lots of toys to us?
Me: Well........uh.........that's a good question Grace!

I never really answered her question. That girl is too smart for me to keep up with!