Just a follow-up on how fantastic – fun, rewarding, helpful – volunteering with kids can be. 

'Tis the Season…for running around like crazy, buying a gazillion gifts, putting in the effort to make everything just a little more special.  How about trying to slow down just a tad and spend some time focusing just on the giving?  Not just on giving gifts, but on giving time and energy to make a stranger’s holiday a little more special.  And on teaching your kids how to start doing just that.

We've been saying it since day one. First to the babies, gently, to encourage them to give us whatever it is that they're playing with, only so we can give it right back and say, "Thank you!" Then to the toddlers, hoping that asking them to share a toy truck won't prompt an all-out kicking and screaming revolt. And then - and this phase seems like it's going to last a long, long time - to the big kids, begging, "Please, please share with your sister."

Our children are soooo excited for Thanksgiving. They're already talking about whose cranberries they like best, what kind of after-lunch show they're going to put on with the cousins, and how we should decorate. They're coming home from school with ceramic turkeys and little stories about what makes them most thankful. We love it.