James Family Fun: A new tradition

Ah, this is probably the funnest thing that we have done yet. This year we decided that the kids are old enough to start getting the "bigger" picture of Christmas and what it is all about. So, we gathered up all of our change had the kids count it out, and each one of them got $5 dollars.
We proceeded to tell them that it is much better to give than to receive, so each of them needed to get every member of their family a gift. Yes, the cat counts too. We also told them that they would not be getting anything from the store, and they were only to buy for others.
Rylee was so excited to get everyone something. She carefully browsed over the store to make sure that each member of her family got the perfect gift. She also was very sneaky, she really wanted her gifts to be a surprise.
Nathan definitely had a challenge. He saw many, many items that he wanted and had to have right now. Rich explained it time and time again. He also picked out some nice things, but wanted to tell everyone right away what it was.
Carson was the quickest shopper of them all. He decided that everyone wanted a can of silly string. He loaded up 5 cans of silly string into his basket and was done. Very good thinking Carson. However, we tried to explain to him that we needed to also get people "thoughtful" gifts. Something that the would use and enjoy. His realized that we were right. Brooklyn really didn't have a need for any silly string and neither did the cat.
That was the funnest trip that I have ever had to the dollar store. We will be making this a tradition every year!