Dear Santa

My two younger children have written their letters to Santa for this 2010 "Season-to-End-All-Seasons," my youngest enlisting her teenaged sister to help her in dashing out the letters (which she did lovingly and painstakingly) that composed the Greeting and Body of the letter. Said youngest is capable of signing her own name, thank you.

I was highly amused. It began, "Dear Santa, This year for Christmas I would like the following items: . . . ," followed by a list of the desired, mostly girly, items.

Her sister, a few years older than the girly one, simply followed suit—and quite pointedly—with, "Dear Santa,  For Christmas I would like the following items: A dog (I must choose breed); An awesome Christmas; To put the presents under the tree; To get a Santa costume." And the various pieces of the aforementioned costume were drawn and labeled beneath, in lieu of a signature.

Now, I do hope Santa is a secure person because no longer do my children ask how he is doing, nor do they attempt to account for their behavior during the past year. Only one of them signed off, "Thank you! Love, . . . ." (and that was probably something her elder sister slipped in anyway). The other one signed the letter with disembodied costume parts, and she addressed it to her parents . . .

If you've ever seen the movie "The Santa Clause" with Tim Allen, you'll know how Allen's character gets the job in the first place. Well, I think my husband and I had better keep an eye on this one to make sure that child #3 doesn't use some clever device to relieve us of our Santa-ly responsibilites. I just hope in all the excitement that she remembers how Santa actually foots the bill for his once-a-year shindig. Her bank account couldn't handle it.

All in all, I think it's funny, even though we constantly have to swim upstream to teach our children what's really important in life. Forgive me, they do make me laugh sometimes. Ho Ho Ho!