One of the children walked up to me today, tears in his eyes.

I was slightly worried, so I took him in my lap and asked him what was wrong.

This made him cry even more. Tears were pouring down his cheeks..

I hugged him close. The poor dear!

"Now now dear, shhh. It's alright. Now, what's wrong?"

He sniffed and said through body-wracking sobs, "I'm sowwy Matwon, I didn't get you a Cwismas Pwesent." (He's only two, and he's got a slight speech impediment, but at that age, it's adorable, no?)

"Oh dear, shhh, now listen, you didn't have to get me a present. You know that..."

He sniffed and started crying again, the flow of tears renewed.

"But I feel BAD!!! You're my Matwon, I was suppothed to get you something!!!"

By this point, I was near tears myself. The poor dear was trying to be so sweet and selfless.

I frowned inwardly, trying to think of something to soothe the child.

Laguna and Ellone were paying a visit, due to the Christmas season.

Laguna's face was slightly screwed up in thought.

Ellone leaned in close to the child and looked him in the eye. This stopped the flow of tears for a moment.

She wiped his cheeks, and he smiled.

"You know...when I was here, I had a similar problem. One year I had been sick, and the Matron had been RIGHT there, taking good care of me."

The child looked at Ellone with his large blue eyes.

"Weally??? ...Wow...she was there the WHOLE time?"

Ellone nodded and smiled.

"Yep. Ya know why? 'Cause she loves us. Whether we're sick, or not, or whether we're bad or not. Whether we've got blue eyes or brown ones. She just loves us. No matter what."

Apparently this was all starting to sink in. He looked down at the floor for a moment and said, "So...she'll love me whether I get her a pwesent or not?"

Ellone nodded, and I rubbed cheeks with him.

I said, "That's right. And you know why I'll love you no matter what?"

He looked up at me with those blue eyes again.

"Why?"

"'Cause that's what Matrons are for."

So after some hugging, we (Ellone and I) finally had convinced the dear that he indeed, did NOT have to get me a present. Laguna made the recommendation that they (the child with Laguna's supervision) make me a present next year.

This absolutely delighted the child and he jumped up and down several times.

"WEALLY??? You'd help me do that? Huh huh?"

Laguna nodded, thoroughly overjoyed.

"Yup. But we gotta start early. So we can get it done in time."

The child nodded, his eyes wide and bright with joy.

"Can we start now?"

Laguna smiled and kindly shook his head.

"Not now, but maybe we can start tomorrow? How does that sound?"

I'd swear, I've never seen someone jump that high..except maybe Zell...after an extreme dose of too much sugar...

"YAY!!!!!!!!"

And with that, he tackled Laguna and gave him a huge hug.

"Thankoothankoothankoothankoothankoothankoothankoo!!!!!"

Laguna had no choice but to say, "Welcome!"