Letter to Santa

I shared this with my real-life friends along with a photo, and wanted to share it here (sorry no photo). Each year our kids make a card or write a letter for Santa and leave it next to the cookies on Christmas Eve.

There have been very few times that what they wrote on their card or letter has caught me off guard and/or left me speechless. The exceptions being of course the year that my mom & brother passed away, and they wrote letters & made cards for both of them and left a note asking Santa to deliver them to heaven.

I've been wanting to call my very best friend in the whole wide world....she lives in Texas and it's been years since I've seen her. Well I decided to tell the kids to work on their letters/cards earlier this afternoon, that way I could have some "quiet" time to chat on the phone with my friend. All of the kids have been hovering over the tray of Christmas cookies all morning....thus I told them "do your card or letter first, then you can have one cookie."

While my friend & I were chatting, Taz brought his letter out for me to read & double check his spelling. What he had written in his letter blew me away -- I read it while I listened to my friend talk about their holiday plans, and I actually gasped out loud and said "Oh my God!" -- my friend said "what, what's wrong?" and I explained about the "tradition" the kids have of writing a letter to Santa, then began to read Taz's letter to her.

This is what his letter said....and yes, he wrote this all by himself with no input from anyone else:

"Dear Santa, if you have time to stop at Heaven, give presents to the 26 victims who died at Sandy Hook Elementary school for me. Will you do that for me please? Can you also do it for grandma and uncle Frank too? Thank you, love Taz"

Boy talk about something that just blew my mind! Both my friend and I were in tears and for a moment we were both silent. I pulled myself together, looked at Taz and said "why did you write that?" and he said "because, it makes me sad that they won't be here to celebrate Christmas with their families, so maybe if they have presents they can celebrate in heaven." 

Then he smiled his sweet smile and said "may I have my cookie now?" My friend on the other end of the phone heard him and said "Oh my God, that was so sweet -- give that boy the whole tray of cookies!" He just stood there patiently waiting for my response....I was trying to fight the tears that were welling up in my eyes, so instead of saying something I just pointed to the cookies and gestured for him to take "just one".

As I tried to pull myself together and continue the phone conversation with my friend, son #3 brought out his item.....a letter he had written to his grandma (my mom, who passed away a little while ago). On the front was a note asking Santa to deliver it to her in heaven. On the inside he had written a letter asking how she liked heaven, and telling her how this year has gone (all about school, our vacation, etc) -- he ended it with "I love you and miss you very much grandma".....Sheesh....are these kids trying to turn me into a blubbering ball of goo on the floor today or what?!

Boy if they keep this up, I may have to drink Santa's beverage myself! LOL Oh for those who don't know, our "tradition" is to leave some cookies and a beer for Santa.....no glass of milk here, just a beer....because we figure by the time Santa goes all over the world and has such a stressful night, he'll need something to help him relax. Thus he gets a beer when he comes to our house. But if the kids keep this up, I may have to just drink that beer myself and tell Santa tough luck.

I hope you all have a safe & blessed holiday, whether you celebrate Christmas or something else. And just in case I don't post anything before the New Year.....have a safe & very Happy New Year! May 2013 hold many blessings for you all.