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Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Magi Arrived

Yesterday, I was ready to DO something.  And Teacher Man was officially on break!  So we decided to let the Magi visit.  At the end of dinner, we read in the book of Matthew how the three kings had brought gifts to Jesus; and we explained to the boys that just as the kings wanted to show their love for Jesus through their three gifts that we had three special gifts for each of our children to show them our love.

Can you tell who my older son looks like?  Holy cow.

Teacher Man and I gift-gather all year (woot.com, IKEA, onesaleaday.com) and pick three gifts at Christmas for each child.  While I've heard of many people doing one gift for the mind, one for the body, and one for the spirit; I had specific things picked out for the boys that they were ready to enjoy right away.  Having only had children for three years, I am blown away by the number of toys one can accumulate in that time.  We purposed in our gifts this year to give them things that they could play with in multiple ways... gifts that would stimulate creativity, imagination, and learning.


I wrapped up two of their gifts (the smaller ones) and stashed each of their bigger gifts in different places around the house, making clues and hiding them around the house for the boys to hunt for their gifts.  (Caleb didn't mind doing Ben's hunt for him.)  They LOVED this!  Caleb is still talking this morning about how he looked around for clues and wasn't it so funny that there was a clue hidden in Mommy and Daddy's pretzel tub?


Reading one of Ben's clues.  It's an adventure!

On the hunt!

It turned out to be a very special evening for the boys.  We were overjoyed today when we watched how perfect the gifts were for each boy.  Caleb spent HOURS last night and this morning setting up and playing with all his new track and accessories.


And Benjamin has spent all morning pushing cars around the roads on his play mat.  

We know Christmas isn't not about things; but, as parents, we are always excited to give our children good things...things they'll enjoy...things that will help them grow.  So excited to celebrate more this week with our children as we remember that our Father gave us the Greatest Gift.  Merry Christmas, friends!  

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In case you were curious:  Ben received an IKEA soft ball, an alphabet puzzle, and an IKEA play rug.  Caleb opened an abacus for math class (his favorite time of day) and a Melissa and Doug tool box (working on those fine motor skills).  Then he raced around the house following clues to find a big box of wooden track.  Fun!

1 comment:

  1. Good job, Krista. And here's an article about how atheists' Christmas celebrations look the same as everyone else's...but not yours.

    http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/atheist.holidays.irpt/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

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