The Reason for the Season

Children, you gotta love 'em. And I do, but I was getting a little tired of hearing things like this:
"You can't play with that, it's mine."
"I am not cleaning that up, I didn't make that mess."
"I wish I didn't have any sisters or brothers."
"I was here first."
"Why is she sitting in my seat?"
"Stop talking you're annoying me." (one of my favorites)

And stuff like this:
"I want a Kindle for Christmas."
"I want a pet fish, a bike and a purple guitar."
"What I want even more than a Kindle is a new DS." (Really a new DS? The one you have is not good enough?)

We are so blessed, we have everything we need and most things that we want. I was trying to think of a way to help, not just the children, but all of us be a little more selfless and a little more loving, and to remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas. This is what I came up with.
I asked the kids, "Why do we celebrate Christmas?"
"To remember Jesus Christ birth," they answered.
"And when you celebrate a friends birthday, what do you do?"
"We give them a present."
"So, what should be give Jesus? We can't wrap a gift and take it to him."
"We should do good."

Yeah! They (at least) know the right answers. Now, to put that to work.

What we are doing-each time someone does something nice or helpful for someone else, they get to ad a link to the paper chain. (What kid doesn't love to make a paper chain?) They write their name and what they did. Hopefully, by Christmas the chain of "good" will be wrapped all around the tree. Our gift to Jesus.

Little Sister suggested that on Christmas eve we read what all the links say. I think we might just have a new tradition.