I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Every Christmas I tried to impress upon him that it wasn't the gift that mattered, it was the thought that counts....

And every Christmas, he wanted to purchase gifts for everyone he possibly could. He's a very generous child and he's even more generous when it's my money he's using.

That year, I insisted that he make everyone handmade gifts. I intended on showing him the true meaning of Christmas. Only not by example. Everyone that I wanted to give gifts to had already compiled their lists, already handed out them out to prospective giftgivers.

He didn't want to make a paper gift; that was for babies!
He did like to make those potholders so he made a few of those. He did a very nice job, too if I do say so myself. But his grandmother needed something special. He didn't want to make her a potholder as she didn't really bake too much. He was being very careful to make gifts he knew the recipient would appreciate. He was getting the message.. He was sharing himself.


With a little help, he decided to make his grandmother a special ornament for her tree. She would love it, all grandmothers like little handmade gifts from their grandchildren. We decided that the salt dough ornaments would be fun to make, fun to give. We purchased shellac so the ornament would be preserved, she could keep it forever. That and the fact that his father was concerned about ants.

Painstakingly he mixed the dough, rolled the dough, cut out the dough. He decided to give her a gingerbread man, one of his favorite Christmas decorations. Adorned with two black eyes and three red buttons, the ornament was placed in the oven to dry. Next morning, all there was to do was shellac and let that dry.
Having done that, he carefully wrapped her present and finished it off with a big green bow, ready for Christmas!

What a sense of accomplishment he felt piling all of his gifts under the tree , ready to hand out on Christmas Day. He truly understood the joy of giving, the joy of giving of himself that Christmas Day.

Christmas night we returned home after having made our rounds. As the boys sat playing with their new toys, the phone rang. It was Emil's grandmother calling to make sure we had made it home alright. "Yes, yes, the boys are playing, we made it home safely".

She asked to speak to Emil , to thank him one more time.

"YOU ATE THE ORNAMENT NANA?" I heard him exclaim.

"ORNAMENT? I THOUGHT IT WAS A COOKIE!"

We never found out. We never asked. Had she eaten the ornament and thought it delicious or had she taken one bite off of the ornaments head and decided that her grandsons mother really wasn't that good of a baker after all?

Not another word was spoken about that poor gingerbread man. Not another saltdough ornament was ever given to her again.

That didn't discourage Emil though and I'm glad. The next year he took the safe route. The next year he made origami ornaments.

Maybe this year, since he's older, we'll work on a different kind of gift together. Klutz books and crafts offers many different types of fun instructional hands on books for kids . I'm pretty sure we can get some ideas from them. If not, we'll sure will have fun using them together. For no reason other than we like making things.

This post was written for Parent Bloggers in conjunction with their Klutzy Blog Blast!

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