Brutally Honest, and Lacking a Little Grace

Daniel is starting to become a little more familiar and polished when it comes to the Christmas holiday. He's fully aware that Christmas is a time of gift-giving, and his excitement around gifts encouraged Sarah and I to continually reinforce the true meaning of Christmas: "Why do we give gifts for Christmas?" "To remember Jesus." "And Who was the most important gift that God gave to us?" "Jesus."

Something that we need to teach Daniel is how to be gracious when he receives gifts that he doesn't like. A few weeks ago, he received gifts from cousins of mine. With anticipation he tore into the wrapping paper with relish, only to find to his chagrin that the box contained clothes. To our horror, he quickly tossed the box aside and walked away to play with his trains. The next day, Daniel received a harsh rebuke and lecture from both Sarah and I. Sarah firmly said, "No matter what you get, you need to say 'thank you' because the person was doing a nice thing by giving you a gift," which was probably more effective than my, "If I ever catch you again being rude when you receive a present, I'm throwing your trains into the garbage." Okay, I'm kidding about that last part.

A couple of days ago, we opened presents at my parents house. Daniel opened numerous boxes of clothing for which he said "thank you" (albeit prompted at times) and then opened an Crayola art set for which he quietly said, "I don't like this one" (but still said 'thank you'), and then got a Thomas Tank Engine bicycle helmet and bicycle, for which there was joy and completely earnest and sincere gratitude. As for Sophia, she was too busy playing with the wrapping paper.

For better of for worse, Daniel's speaks honestly about what he likes and doesn't like. He'll say outright whether he doesn't like a particular gift or excitedly exclaims "this is just what I wanted!" as he did when he received a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD and toy. I can't be too hard on the boy. After all, he's not even four years old yet, and Lord knows I hated receiving clothes even more than Daniel did. Plus, it's not as if I'm looking forward to the day my son turns into disingenuous two-faced phony.