This year, I made kindness elves for the boys. I saw the idea a couple years ago but never got around to making them in time, as holidays seem to spring upon us. I wasn't overly bothered though because I thought they were too young to really appreciate it. But this year I planned ahead of time and was ready. Everyday the elves wrote a note to the boys' giving them a suggestion of something kind that they could do that that day starting December 1 all the way through to Christmas. It was my hope that this would draw their attention away from the obsessing about what gifts they will get and the commercialization aspects of the holiday and help them to realize the beauty of kindness and family that tend to go along naturally with the holiday season. And you know what? I think it worked, at least to some degree, with Meo. There were many times throughout the month where Meo was seen pausing to think about his actions, then he would report to me about how he was going to do one thing but decided to do a more kind thing instead. Of course Meo was still very excited about presents at Christmas time and hoped that each one under the tree was his, but I feel like leading up to the day he was great about not acting greedy and during the holiday it was a gracious and kind gift receiver. Plus it felt great to be making an effort to do do kind things everyday for our family, friends and community. It will certainly be a tradition we continue as it was well worth the effort.
I made a photo book for the boys to look back at and remember all the kind things we did. Hopefully it will inspire them (and all of us) to be kind all year long.
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