Moving away from the materialism!!

Okay, so with the whole bookcase situation with Emma, we stumbled upon an idea that I thought worthy of the blog!! We decided that instead of the normal commercialism that surrounds birthdays and all other present-getting events, that Emma's birthday present will be the bookcase. Well, the present is to do a project, either with Mommy or Daddy, or both. But this year, we happened to already have the project. Next year, we will start early before her birthday arrives. We will garage sale, and treasure hunt, until we find just the right project. So, for her bookcase, I got the paint, and some stencils to put her name and some other decorations on it, and she will get to work on that with me.
For Caleb, we thought that since he loves to help, fix, and build, that he and Daddy will go and choose some wood and build something very basic, like a stool or something. And his present will be to work on a project with Daddy, or Mommy, or both. And so, this year, we will begin a hopefully wonderful tradition in which we can work together to accomplish something, and perhaps that will be even better than Dora, or Disney princesses, or even Spiderman. And, as I realized last night, this will be a wonderful opportunity for me to begin learning to let go, and let Emma or Caleb do things as they want to, even if they "mess it up" according to my sometimes unreasonable standards. I'll let you know how it goes!!