it IS the thought that counts ....

i've been wrapping presents ...... 

ahhhhh ... i just love christmas time ... christmas preparation .... the grand whoooop deee dooo ...... i did some christmas shopping this morning ..... it was REALLY nice .... i was at a favorite store .... buying some favorite things .... for favorite people.... wait... why am i being so mysterious? .... i'll just tell you ... i was at border's .... with a good coupon! ..... and i went looking for one specific thing .... but got about everything BUT what i went for .... oh well ... it was still joyful .... and i feel like i'm getting there .... on my way to getting all the things i need to get! 

then i went to school... again ... to a fifth grade .... again .....and did art ... again .... but really, those again make me sound all drudgey... and that's not the case ....even though it was the third time this week, it was quite a nice time ..... i had the kids glaze papers ...

 we are going to use them to make a large collage for the school auction .....they used some of their own papers and some dictionary papers .....

then i did some studio cleaning .. FINALLY .... it entailed wrapping all our teacher gifts so that i could get it all off my studio table..... the home made items, the boxes, the ribbons, the tissue paper, the tags, the pens ..... 

whew ... each child did their teachers .... except for a couple shared

 teachers that just one child did, though some shared teachers will get more than one gift .... cause both wanted to make something for them..... i bet we wrapped 20 teacher gifts .... 

here's an issue ...... 

ack ... i just deleted what i'd written .... it was a bit ranty ... 

i'm starting again .... 

i want to teach my children the joy of giving ... the joy of making a gift .... the joy of hand delivering .... the joy of "it IS the thought that counts" ....... so we go through the efforts many years of making gifts ... sometimes we can't and i do the big donate money to a pool kind of thing ....or do store bought .... or only give to the most special few teachers ... or my kids pick from things i have made and then wrap them themselves for their teachers .... but really, ideally, all the kids make things for all their teachers .... even my sweet boy who is SO not the crafty type .... 

what do you do? how do you teach your kids about being a cheerful giver? the joy of being a cheerful giver? the joy and the truth to " it IS the thought that counts" .....

and then ... i did some art .... all of my children have asked for art for christmas .... this is for drew...

 .... he asked for a red clock .... he said chess or cards .... but conceded that really i could do anything i wanted .... so .... i mostly did what he wanted, the background isn't red, but those letters are ... even though here they look kinda orangey .... i love him and want him to be happy! especially after making me so happy by telling me he wanted a piece of art for christmas .... what a good boy! 

how are your christmas preparations going? happy, i hope!