Little Christmas

We took down our Christmas decorations today, right on time for the Epiphony (aka Three Kings Day, aka Little Christmas). When I was growing up, Santa always sent his elves to leave that one last present to be found when taking down the tree on Little Christmas. Nate was napping as we were taking down the tree, but Alex was helping us. The elves took a short cut and quickly dropped two plastic dinosaurs in a single, unlabeled gift bag that got stuck in the tree. When Alex found it, he opened it up and proclaimed “the elves brought one for me and one for Nate!!!” I can’t tell you how proud I was of him at that moment — not selfishly claiming them both for himself, and with Nate not even in the room to hear his brother’s generosity. Of course, Alex had his own moments of selfishness through out the day — sibling birthday parties are hard! — but that sparkling moment made me feel like indeed, I am doing something right, and it will all work out in the end.