The Gift Of The Bran-gi

I'm sure you have all heard of the story of The Gift of The Magi.  Well, I would like to tell you a story about a sweet little boy who gave this Christmas with that same selfless spirit.

I'm not sure if  any of you remember this picture, but I posted it at Christmas and said there was a sweet little story to follow.

Our story actually begins in at the end of June as we prepared to celebrate cousin Z's birthday on July 1st.  We were trying to find him a very special present--after all, he is a very special boy who is with us quite a bit.  We finally decided to get him a toy guitar that you play kind of like the Guitar Hero.  It has a background beat and then it lights up the places/keys  you should play on the guitar to play the song.  You can even plug in MP3 players and learn to play along with your favorite songs.  The guitar was a big hit and all the boys loved it.  

Now, fast forward to the end of October when it was B's birthday.   Sometime before the big day,   B had been with Jill and Z shopping and had seen something that he thought was pretty cool (it was some sort of electronic Uno game).  Z cataloged this away and when it was time to pick out B's present, he knew just what to give him!  He was so specific with Jill as to what she was suppose to get.  He would remind her everyday what it was called, what it looked like, etc.  On the big day, the kids were walking home from school and Z turned to Jill to make sure she had got it.  She told him she had and then he turned to B and started telling him how much he was going to love his present and how great it was.  Then as a side note, he asked, "Do you like Uno?"  I feel I need to preface his response by saying that at this time, Uno was L's  favorite thing in the world to do(and still is actually) so he answered, "No!  That's dumb!"  (After all, how cool can it be when it is your sister's favorite game?)  Well, Z was mortified.  He ran up to Jill begging and pleading to go back to the store to pick something else out so they could give him the perfect gift.  Jill said no, because the other one would be fine and B would still love it.  This was just not good enough for Z, so he took matters into his own hand.  He went and got his precious guitar and gave it to B for his birthday.  I wish I had taken a picture of Z's face when he gave it to him.  He was so pleased with himself.  It really was sweet.

Fast forward again to the week before Christmas.  I was getting money out for the kids to take to Santa's Secret Shop at school.  I had them draw names with each other so they would know which sibling they should buy a present for.  Then I gave them the money and told them that they need to buy something for that person, plus mom and dad.  As soon as I said this, B disappeared downstairs. He came up a little while letter with 3 gift bags full of presents.  1 for me, 1 for Dave and 1 for D.  I had to rewrap some of the presents with him because they didn't quite fit in the bag so I got to see what they were.  For D, he had given him a new cool ball he had gotten from my mom for his birthday that was in the Bronco colors and of course, D loves the Broncos.   For Dave (as I am sure you have guessed by now from the story and the picture), he gave the very special guitar because he had played with it and told him how cool it was.  I just couldn't get over how sweet and selfless he was to give away these things he loved so much.  I should also point out that he didn't give these things away so he could keep the money for himself from Santa's Shop.  He did also buy us things from there.  What did I get you may ask?  Well, I was wondering too what it would be but had to wait until Christmas.  

He gave me another one of his most prized possessions.  He gave me his soccer trophy. 

I'm still just shocked about how selfless he was and it makes me think that I must be doing something right, although I know I have a lot to learn.  I know there have been times when we have cleaned out our toys and I have told the kids to pick out toys that they want to give away to kids who don't have as many.  They have picked out their newest and funnest toys and offered them up, but it was me who said no because it was still to nice or new.  Shame on me!  I'm so glad that that lesson didn't stick in!  I really hope I can always remember this spirit of giving!  Thanks for the special present and lesson, B!  

This is just a picture of L, because of course she wanted her picture taken too!  :-)