December 23, 2004 - Thursday
Yesterday afternoon the boys and I bought four small poinsettias, one for each of their teachers at school and this morning they proudly walking into school carrying them, Harry with one in each hand and Jeremy with two arms around one. Harry, sweet Harry, walked right up to Miss Marie and said "Merry Christmas," then found Miss Angela and said the same with a happy smile. Jeremy was a little shyer with Miss Lisa and Miss Colleen, but not too shy to whisper the right words. Later this afternoon we stopped and found a quite large pink poinsettia for Mary, Jeremy's still-on-Mondays babysitter. We stopped at her house just long enough for Jeremy to walk across her porch, barely visible behind the huge leaves, and present it to Mary. Somewhat surprisingly, he seemed even shyer with Mary (of all people), but that was probably because there was a new person there at the time.

It was a nice series of little scenes, the boys learning about spreading holiday cheer. But it's not the really intriguing story for the day. That would be about what happened from that point with Harry. Although he was delightful this morning, he was particularly taken by that last pink poinsettia that sat in the car on the bump just between and behind the driver and passenger seats, with leaves big enough to be well within the boys' reach from their back seats. Harry started saying he wanted one for his room.
"Well, Harry, maybe we can get one for mommy and put it in the kitchen," I offered.
"But then I won't be able to see it from my bed," he whimpered.
"Harry, Christmas is certainly a time for presents, but shouldn't be about buying things for yourself. It's a time to think about giving presents to others and making other people happy. How did you feel when you made Miss Maria and Miss Angela smile this morning?"
"Good."
"Well, that's what Christmas is about. The thing is, Harry, if you're nice to others, then maybe they will be nice to you back and give you presents, too. That's how Christmas is about sharing."

We went on like that for several mimutes and I kept trying to bring the discussion around to the idea of what Christmas was about, trying a few different approaches that didn't seem to register. Then I remembered a book from the library he currently has in his room: Jan Brett's Christmas Trolls. It's a story that Harry has enjoyed a lot recently and one that features two selfish trolls who steal the Christmas decorations of a girl and her family. She eventually finds them and teaches them about the spirit of Christmas, ultimately by giving them her favorite toy horse to show what she means. The book end on Christmas morning with a noise outside and the girl finding a new horse the trolls have left for her, proving that they have, indeed, learned about Christmas.

After complaining about not getting his own poinsettia, then becoming very quiet and introspective, Harry immediately went up to his room after we got home. Jeremy followed, as might typically happen, but the next thing I heard was the commotion of Jeremy trying to get into Harry's room and Harry telling him he didn't want to play right now. I told Jeremy that if Harry wasn't going to be nice, that's his choice and that Jeremy would need to find something else to do. Begrudgingly, he did. After a few minutes I opened Harry's door to see what was going on. There he was on his bed looking through the pictures in Christmas Troll.

Was that just the book on top of his stack, or was he getting it?


Comments, Opinions?