`Awesome' gesture makes a Bear-y Merry Christmas.

Byline: George Schroeder The Register-Guard

He had stuffed the animal, and inserted a little red heart, and gotten it sewn up. And now he had an important announcement.

"Mom," he said, "my turtle's name is Carlee."

And then 6-year-old Philip raced off to find clothes for his new toy.

This was Monday night at Valley River Center. The parking lots were jammed, and the stores were crammed full of last-minute shoppers. Amid the mayhem, not much stood out about the crowd of kids at the Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Unless you stopped for a moment and watched as Philip and his twin brother, Cyrow (pronounced like the city in Egypt), and nine other kids took over the store, laughing, chattering, smiling.

Until you stood with Mary Jeffrey, the twins' mother, as she surveyed the scene that was "Jordan Kent's Bear-y Christmas."

"It's such an awesome thing," Jeffrey said.

Also: "It's awesome."

And did she mention? "Really, really awesome."

Or else, it was a very small gesture, according to Kent.

The former University of Oregon standout wasn't there - he was stuck in a snowstorm in Seattle - but Bear-y Christmas was his idea, born a while back when things weren't going so well.

He'd been cut by the Seahawks (he's since been re-signed) and was feeling sorry for himself, but then realized how wrong-headed that attitude was.

"I'm really blessed," Kent said by phone. "We forget how blessed we are. People have real things to worry about."

The concept was simple: Find four families in need. Provide a special evening for their kids, a limousine ride to the mall and a shopping spree for stuffed animals, then a sightseeing tour of Christmas lights on the way home. Top everything off with a gift basket - sausages, cheeses, chocolates and a $100 gift certificate to Fred Meyer.

"My little way of giving back," Kent said.

Looking Glass helped identify the families. Kent's brother Marcus, mother Dianna, sister McKenzie and friend Scott Little coordinated the details.

And Monday evening, kids ages 2 to 16 piled into a rented limousine - actually, a party van - and headed for the mall.

A little thing, yeah. Except "it's the small things in life that count," Jeffrey said.

Lately, Jeffrey and her family find themselves counting on small things. They moved here three months ago for a job - Jeffrey's boyfriend is a roofer - but when they arrived, the job had fallen through, and they didn't have enough money to get back to Arizona.

They spent two months at the Eugene Mission, and recently moved into a doublewide trailer off Highway 99. It's not the greatest set-up, but it's better than staying at the mission, or living in the pickup truck.

"A place we can call home," Jeffrey said.

There have been some odd jobs, but nothing steady, and Jeffrey said, "It seems like it's so hard to find any kind of work."

They'd scraped together enough to buy a Christmas tree, and a few donated presents sat beneath it. But Jeffrey was surprised when she got a phone call last Friday from an administrator at River Road Elementary, where the twins are kindergartners, asking if she was interested in a little help with Christmas. She was astonished the next day when Jordan Kent called and cemented the plan.

She was "floored" by the scene Monday night, all those kids picking out bears or bunnies or turtles, getting them stuffed, playing games, having fun.

It could have been the soda pop the kids drank during the ride over - ask any parent, that's a no-no if you're trying to achieve calm. But Philip and Cyrow drank water, and they kept bouncing around like the fully caffeinated kids, so there must have been something more.

"They're so excited and happy," Jeffrey said. "Immensely, this helps."

She thanked the Kents, and kept tossing out "awesome," and finally ran out of things to say, except:

"God bless them."

A small gesture? A little thing? Sure. But it seemed like a big deal to Philip, who decked out Carlee the Turtle in Batman garb. Or to Cyrow, who put Ironman gear on his blue bear - name: "Teddy" - then gave the animal a bath.

And also, it seemed big to their mother, who watched it all while clutching a floppy-eared bunny, a gift for the twins' 4-year-old sister.

It was almost time to go when a little girl, holding tight to a stuffed monkey, wandered up to ask Marcus Kent: "Are we gonna go anywhere else?"

His answer, delivered with enthusiasm: "We're gonna finish our bears, and go look at Christmas lights, and then go home."

Her reaction: "Yeah!"

Listen to George Schroeder on "The Writer's Block" Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-10 a.m. on KSCR-AM 1320. E-mail him at [e-mail].