Avery's Gift

We walked into school today, and Avery's little friend, Olivia ran right to her little cubby area yelling, "Avery's here!!!" She disappeared for a second, retrieving something from her jacket pocket. She emerged with a hand drawn scribble in blue writing on a piece of slightly crumpled notebook paper. She gave it to him with lots of enthusiasm. It said,

To: Avery
(Heart): Olivia

A teacher said that as soon as she arrived in the classroom, she told everyone about the drawing. She was so excited to give it to him! Her scribble! For Avery! She was thinking of him!

I brought it home with me, and posted it on the lower part of the fridge so he could see it easily. When he arrived home from school, it was the first thing he wanted to see. I asked how his day was, and he said, "Olivia gave me a gift! Where's the gift Olivia gave me?"

This made me start to think about the holidays, and how we really need to actually cut back a bit in real ways. Avery doesn't know about the latest fad toys and really doesn't care where his clothing comes from. He can spend a long time simply playing with magnets, or TAPE, and loves wearing almost anything---including the 45 cent shirts and 95 cent pants we bought him from the thrift shop this weekend. He loves books we get from the library, and videos we upload from the internet. At this time, when he really is excited by the little things, it seems like a good idea to celebrate those.

I hope to be able to really focus on giving those gifts, like the one Olivia gave him this morning, that just mean you were thinking of someone, or someone was thinking about you.