Christmas spirit

So Carter has been doing extra jobs around the house and for neighbors and ward members since summer to earn money. I guess he took my advice seriously when I told him to save his money when he would want something at the store. He is so funny because he collects toy magazines and cuts out his favorite things and tapes them on to computer paper and then staples the papers together to make his own catalogue. He loves this thing and it's gotten huge! It consists mostly of remote control cars, trains, and airplanes. Lately he's been wanting a geo trax train/airplane set, race track and remote control cars. This thing goes everywhere and he wants to show everyone. He even falls asleep looking at this thing! Anyways, after months of saving and getting excited about all his choices, yesterday was the big spending day. He bought an orange remote control car for $8.00 at Lakeforest Mall at KB Toys. He then saw a cool motorcycle toy that goes up the escalator and down the track again and again and Bryce was enjoying watching it. Carter whispered to me, "I'm going to buy that for Brycie for his Christmas present. Don't let him see it!" I let he spend $2.00 and I spent the other $10.00. He was so excited he wanted Bryce to open it right away and was upset when I said no. He loved playing with his car when we got home and even let Bryce have a few turns. :)
Then last night he decided he wanted to spend the rest of his money the next day (today) and buy 'poor children in the orphanage' toys because they didn't have any. I asked him if he was sure and he said he was. I was torn. I remember calling a hotline number when I was about 10 or 11 after seeing an infomercial about how just "10 cents a day can save a child. I calculated that if I spent all my allowance each week, I would have just enough to support a child in need. My parents didn't want me to spend all my money and said I could just spend half and they would match the other half. I thought at the time that it was really nice of them, but I really wanted to do it myself. I get now as a parent, knowing how hard Carer has worked that he should spend it on something he's been saving for, but remembering that experience when I was younger said he could do whatever he wanted with his money. So this afternoon we colored Christmas cards for those children "who have no toys" and wrote them letters. After Bryce got up from his nap, we were off to the mall again. He changed his mind halfway there and decided he wanted to get his Uncle Brian a race car just like his instead of a child at the orphanage. He said, "I'll save my money for them next time." Uncle Brian has been gone all semester at BYU- Idaho and Carter has missed him. So, he spent half the money he had left on Uncle Brians race car and was so excited. He spent the other half on this race track that has three tiny cars that go up the escalator and race down the mini track. I finally just told him to turn it off a half hour ago- 10 pm! We drove over to my parents house to wrap it right away and put it under the tree so it would be there when he came home on Saturday. He kept saying things like, "Uncle Brian will really love this.... He's going to open it right away, but he has to wait for Christmas.... He's going to say, 'I love it' and play with it all day and not open his other presents because he is having too much fun!" I guess it's true what they say that it's more fun to give than receive.