this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

My six year old is learning the joy of giving, while my three-year old is mastering re-gifting.
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One of my favorite ideas gleaned from the internet is that of homemade sibling gifts (from Design Mom). Each year her kids make their brothers and sisters gifts. They make things such as decorated T-shirts, decoupaged sketchbooks, headbands, and jumpropes. Things that are totally practical and useful, but at the same time require some thought and effort and love on the part of the maker.

I started this tradition two Christmases ago when my boys were actually too young to understand it (they were 18 months and 4 at the time), but I had fun with it! I bought some fabric paint and had them decorate shirts for each other.

This year my older son gets it. He knows his younger brother loves books and the character Diego, so he's writing and illustrating a book about Diego for the gift. Every time we work on it, he tells me he can't wait to see the look on his little brother's face when he opens it, that he just knows he's going to love it. I'm so excited that he's learning how rewarding giving can be.

My younger son, on the other hand, wants to wrap up a game that he says he doesn't like anymore to give to his brother. Coincidentally, it's the same game that he gave me for my birthday, and one I gave him for his birthday last year. Clearly he's got the re-gifting concept down. He's still young, he'll grasp the giving concept soon enough.