For today’s advent “activity,” we opened our home to many friends from church and hosted a Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange.  Naturally the kids enjoyed having other children and many adults with whom they could play, and interact.

 Two highlights for us:

1) Our typically shy and timid Calissa was all smiles for quite a while without us in the room!  She happily sat and played with a few of the party attendees, and was a joy to them!

2) During the gift exchange, Matthew got his hands on a very nice looking toy Hummer.  A couple of times, a few adults almost “stole” the toy on their turn, but held back noting how much he liked it (naturally).  But finally, another boy decided to steal it on his turn… and Matthew very easily let it go!  I was very proud of him, for I knew that even though he liked it, he was willing to let it go, partly because I’d warned him before the party “not to get too attached” to anything.  Still, it was quite an accomplishment for him.

I also appreciated the loving gestures of several adults doing some swaps at the end of the game with kids who ended up feeling disappointed.

Here are some photos of the revelry…

Calissa surrounded by admirers:

Me, explaining the rules of the gift exchange to the crowd:

More shots of the “crowd” in our home:

Distributing gifts (note the Hummer toy which was temporarily Matthew’s, in bottom right corner of photo):