Operation Christmas Child

Parents.

This guy knows what I'm talking about.

{Sorry I've been watching way too much How I Met Your Mother.}

 We want our kids to have it all.

And that's about where the similarities end.

Having it all means something very different to each of us.

I can only speak from my own {and Jeff's as far as we've discussed} point of view.

Yes, of course we want our kids to have great clothes, toys, rooms {within reason}.

But what we want most of all for them is what we have no clue how to give.

I mean, we hope that we are but never really know.

Until it's too late that is.

What we want is to mold them into the best little human beings that have ever walked the earth.

{Is that asking too much?}

We want them to be kind, intelligent, modest, confident, fit and healthy.

Not only that but we want them to be unwavering in their beliefs.

To be fair and without prejudice.

To have more success than they've ever dreamed of.

And to be generous with it all.

If you picked up 10 books on parenting, you would count 59,255,983,025 many contradictions.

There are so many great parents out there but none of them have the magic formula.

{Sorry, they may claim to, but they don't.}

Sure we educate ourselves.

But we can really only hope that we're doing right by these little babes.

We feel their unconditional love.

We see the admiration in their faces.

They think {for now} that we have it all figured out.

And here I am thinking "please don't let me mess this up".

It feels like you only get one chance at that purely clean slate.

Slip up once and it comes right back to you.

That sweet little voice...not so sweet in those moments.

Of course we all make mistakes.

Laugh {or try to contain the laughter} and move on.

Forgiving, that's the other trait I want for them.

Get to the point right?

This week we participated in Operation Christmas Child.

{Part 1 of Operation Generous Child.}

I had seen these shoeboxes in the past and never looked into it.

Finally, this year I did and loved the idea for Fiona.

Earlier in the week we went shopping and she was able to pick out little things for her and Cedric's "friends".

Yesterday we packed up the gifts.

At last, today, we dropped them off.

She was so proud and posed happily.

Cedric was less impressed but I look forward to getting him in on the action in years to come.

Anyone out there have any good toddler charity ideas?

{Year round too?}