12 Days of Christmas Giving

"The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."—Mother Teresa

I found this saying about a month ago, I instantly feel in love with it. This year I think Bailee is old enough to really understand giving and how we are so lucky to have what we have. JP is still too little to understand but I am hoping he will learn by example from Kurt, Bailee and I. We are starting a new tradition this year we are calling the 12 days of Christmas giving. Starting the 12 days before Christmas we are going to give to others.

Day 1: The kids each picked one toy to give to another kid. Bailee had to think really hard about this one. When she finally walked into the living room with her Disney princess light up toy from our trip to see Disney on Ice I instantly said "that cost a lot of money for that little toy" and she said "Mom I never play with it." Amazing how the look on her face taught me a little lesson of my own quickly I should not question what she choose and then said "you are right it does not matter what we spent on it, it is the fact that you are giving it to someone who will love it." JP on the other hand instantly started crying saying "give my clothes to Creid not my toys." LOL, he hands downs clothes to his cusion quit often as you can tell. I explained it was not going to Creid it was going to another little boy who might not have so many toys. After a little I choose two toys he does not play with and let him make the choice of which one, he happily pointed to a small tool box that makes tons of noise(: and said "give that to a little boy." It was so cute!!

I cant wait to take these toys somewhere and to continue our week of giving. I pray that one day my kids will look back and these be their Christmas memories not the toys we or Santa bought them. I may never know the impact this has on my kids but I pray one day I will see them make a choice and in my heart will think maybe it did.

As I sit here and type this Bailee comes up to me and says "Mom I figured out what my verse means!" I asked "tell me your verse again." THE LORD IS MY SHEPARD I SHALL NOT BE IN WANT. Philippians 12:1, she then tells me "The Shepard came to see Jesus at Christmas and we should not want anything for Christmas because we already have our gift baby Jesus." Yes, this brought a tear to my eyes, love when they my kids show me we are doing things right.