Gratitude for Gifts

Tonight we had a really successful family night that I just had to share. Brian gave us a really nice lesson on obedience. We practiced different scenarios about obeying mom and dad, and depending upon their reactions they were given points to earn a treat after our lesson. I think it really helped, particularly with Tanner, who has struggled with obeying lately.
After our lesson it was my turn for the activity and I decided to try a game that I had read about in my copy of Family Fun magazine. We put every one's name into a bowl and gave each person a gift bag. After drawing names everyone had two minutes to go through the house and find a gift to give the person who's name they had drawn. The boys were bursting with excitement as they thought about what gift to give their assigned family member. We all filled our gift bags with our chosen gifts and then we gathered back in the living room to exchange gifts. The rules were that you had to express gratitude for the gift and tell one thing that you really liked about the gift that was chosen for you. Sometimes it was easy. Once Tanner brought me the book that I was currently reading and sometimes the boys received one of their favorite toys. Other times it was a little more challenging. Once Tanner gave Ethan a toilet paper roll, and another time I gave Tanner a pair of his underwear. When Tanner received the underwear his reaction was priceless "Underwear! I don't want underwear!" We had to practice receiving that particular gift again.
The lesson behind the activity was to teach that we need to be grateful and verbally express our gratitude for whatever gifts might be given to us this Christmas season. The boys just loved this game and begged to play it over and over again. It was a lot of fun. We'll probably play this again before Christmas and hopefully our boys will be grateful for whatever they might receive.