Thats the holiday spirit!

Note: I am going to brag A LOT in this post, but I think all of LTs friend's parents could and should brag just as much about their kids. They are all wonderful children with a multitude of talents.
All too often people lose sight of the holiday spirit, giving. Shawn and my mom are two extremely generous people who are always looking out for others: cooking food for people, donating clothes and toys, bringing food to families without anything for the holidays, giving to charities etc, but when you ask them what they want, they say, "I don't need or want anything", and the best part is that they mean it. LT might be following in their footsteps.
This is the first year that LT really understands presents and has some understanding of who Santa is. With the exception of one present, he has helped me wrap everyone else's presents without fuss (this particular present for some reason has been a big deal for him not to wrap, so mom, you may get a gift unwrapped!) He made our family some presents, but accidentally told Brian right away what he was getting, ooops, guess 2 year olds are honest!
My mom and I took the boys shopping about a week ago and my mom wanted to take LT into the Lego store to buy some toys for kids who didn't have any toys. I thought for sure there would be a full tantrum because HE wanted a toy for HIMSELF. But... he and my mom were successful, he just walked around looking for things that he could get "next time". He chose some legos that he thought other kids might like. (when I asked him originally what he thought kids might like who didn't have any toys, his first answer was a brown B, unfortunately the lego store didn't carry any of those).
On Tuesday, Brian's mom came to help with the boys. I asked LT if he wanted to stay and play with Baba or run errands with mommy (I thought for sure he would want to stay and play and I would have plenty of time to quickly get errands run). He said, "I want to go run errands." So, I bundled him up in his warm clothes (note, this was a few hours before the horse drawn carriage rides, so bitter cold temps). We went to the post office to mail some baby presents and then to pick up his jacket from the dry cleaners. We had about 20 extra minutes and so I thought I would risk taking him to the local bookstore. The toy library at our local library was recently told that their toys are all out of date and need to be replaced in order to meet current code. Therefore, they need to replace nearly 400 toys. They were asking for donations, and since our family uses it often, I thought what better way to give? Rather than trying to explain this all to LT, I told him we were going to pick out a few more toys for kids who don't have any toys. He chose three puzzles, took them to the counter and told the owner that these were for kids who don't have any toys. I was so proud of him, that I told him to go look at the shelf and find something he might want to ask santa for. This was a risk, a HUGE risk because kids tend to live in the moment, see what they want then and there. But... LT came back to me and said he found one that he would tell santa he wanted, "next time". No fussing, no crying, nothing. The toy library is taking donations at the local wine bar, that happens to be just a few stores down and across the street from the bookstore. Again, I thought this is taking a huge risk because is he really going to want to give these puzzles up? But, no reason to drag them home and have them sit around waiting for me to find the time to take them back, so we walked to the wine bar. He handed them to the bartender and told him, "these are for kids who have no toys". I added in the "toy library" part quietly. The bar tender offered me a free glass of wine (mama juice as LT calls it) and LT some juice. He and I sat at the bar on this ridiculously cold afternoon and enjoyed some one on one time, sipping our juice and chatting. I never anticipated having a 2 1/2 year old who was so giving, but I am so proud of him. Whether or not he fully understands, I think I can say safely that he's been a good boy this year.
Santa is working hard building the two things LT wants, a silver bell and the car tow truck puzzle that he saw at the bookstore.