On the way home from picking Drew up at preschool I heard the DJ on the radio station I usually listen to broadcasting from one of the grocery store parking lots with the town's firefighters and their annual Christmas toy drive. I immediately thought that it would be a nice lesson for Drew to learn a little about giving during the Christmas season. So we drove home and I went to the closet where we are hiding most of Drew's Christmas presents and grabbed a Tonka truck. He already has several trucks and it wasn't really clear to me why Bill bought him another one to begin with, but I never got around to returning it to the store.
So with the Tonka truck in hand and a small monetary donation to accompany it, we headed back out. I explained to Drew that we were going to go give the truck to some firefighters who would make sure that a little boy who didn't have any trucks to play with would get this one for Christmas. He, of course, asked why. He has just recently entered the phase of asking "why?" for EVERYTHING. I tried to explain to him that he has lots of Christmas presents to open, but some little boys and girls aren't as fortunate, so we were helping to make sure that they would all have presents to open on Christmas morning too. He seemed to get that, especially when I asked if he thought kids would be sad if they didn't have any Christmas presents. So he very proudly carried the truck over to the firefighters with me and handed it to one of them saying it was for another little boy. They thanked him and gave him a Jr. Fire Fighter sticker, which he thought was very cool.
Having accomplished our basic lesson in giving, we headed over to check out one of the fire trucks parked in the store's lot. And this is where I started kicking myself for not only not bringing my camera, but also for not even having my cell phone to take pictures (it was charging at home). At first we just walked around the truck and Drew pointed out the hoses, the ladders, the big wheel ("The wheel's bigger than me Mama!"). Then, two firefighters came over to give Drew the real tour. They opened the back where they let him climb in and see all the big firefighter jackets and boots. Then they asked if he wanted to drive the truck so we walked up to the front where Drew was able to sit in the driver's seat and pretend to steer and pull the siren. They shared a few high fives and fist bumps with him too. They had to teach Drew the fist bump, as he wasn't familiar. Finally, they showed him the hoses and ladders, even revealing where the hidden ladders in the back are stored. Drew thought that was especially neat.
Drew was just in heaven...smiling from ear to ear and talking about the ladders all the way home. We may have to buy another toy to donate and go back next week with a camera.
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