Dear Santa

Two nights ago, I was putting Abby to bed and I decided to talk to her about Santa.  She's picked up bits and pieces about him, but I don't think we'd ever really talked about the whole thing.  So, I explained to her where Santa lived and how he had elves that made toys and that, if you were good, he would bring you a toy on Christmas.

She was mostly concerned that Santa was cold in the North Pole.  I assured her that he had a nice warm coat.

Then I asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said "I don't want anyfing"  I asked her why and she said "because I alweady have so many toys"

sweet girl.

But, I could tell that she was a little sad about that.  You could see that she WANTED to get new toys for Christmas, but for whatever reason, wasn't going to let herself think about it because she'd decided she had too many toys already.  She was torn.

*tangent*

It reminded me of the time when I was in 1st or 2nd grade and my parents surprised me with tickets to go see Disney on Ice (at least, I think they had the tickets already - that's how I remember it).  Disney was my favorite thing and I can only speculate that they were as excited to offer me this treat as I was going to be to take it.  But, I told my mom I couldn't go.  Why?  Because I had too much homework.  I remember feeling so sad, and yet, so adamant.   To this day, I don't know why I didn't forget the homework and go to the show.  I remember mom and dad trying to convince me to go, and I just wouldn't.  I guess I was convincing.  I remember crying while filling out a worksheet due the next day because, I really did WANT to go.

So, that memory came back when I saw Abby so sad about not wanting Christmas presents.  She's still young enough that I can fix it.

I asked her why she didn't want to ask Santa for anything and she said, again, because she had so many toys already.  I suggested that maybe we could make room for some new toys - would she like that?  She whispered "yes"

Then, we were good.  I asked her again, "Once we make room for your new toys, what kind of new toys do you want Santa to bring?"

She thought about it and said "trains"  But then she said, laughing, "no, I already have so many trains"

...too bad kid.  You're getting more next week. ;)

She thought about it some more and finally decided on "a doll"  Then she added "and a dog and kitty cat"  She went ahead and clarified that she meant a Toy dog and kitty cat.

I asked her if she wanted anything else and she said "nope"

what a great age this is.

Yesterday afternoon, I told her we would write Santa a letter, and she told me the same three things from the day before.

I'll mail off the letter today, but I texted him too - in case the mail is slow. :)

I love the magic that Christmas brings, and I'm excited to watch Abby get caught up in it all.

not to be outdone...