Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Letters to Santa, Lego and Life Lessons

Today the boys sat down to write their letters to Santa. I'm trying to get in early this year, in an attempt to ensure that the Great Disaster of 2011, when the letters to Santa were posted so late that Santa had to send us a reply on January 14 explaining that we needed to get in earlier if we expected to hear from him before Christmas, never happens again.

Hmmmph. Santa's minions need to type faster, is all I can say.

Anyhoo, Mr8 produced a neatly spaced, neatly thought out, neatly constructed list, complete with a Dear Santa at the top and a Thank You Very Much at the bottom. Mr5... well, we'll get to that.

Whilst writing his letter, Mr8 let slip that there was a lot of Lego on the list.

"I really like Lego, Mum," he said, busily colouring his Christmas tree. "I'm not sure that anyone likes Lego as much as I do."

Pause.

"In fact, there aren't too many kids at school who want to talk about Lego with me."

Pause. Colour, colour.

"Or any of the things I'm interested in."

Pause. "Like what?" I ask.

"Like history," he said, looking up, from his Christmas star. "History is my life. And nobody knows what I'm on about."

Dramatics aside (life?), I should explain at this point that Mr8 is one of those males who goes from obsession to obsession with lightning speed. When these obsessions take the form of Ben 10 morphing into Star Wars backflipping into Batman, all is well. When they follow the lines, as they have this year, of Ancient Greeks sliding heavily into Vikings and morphing into Nasty Knights, and, of course, Lego, things get a bit more dicey.

I choose my words with care. "You know, it's as important to learn to talk about the things that other people are interested in as it is to share your own."

Eye roll. "I know. But I really don't care about One Direction or that Gangnam thing, Mum."

"No," I say. "Nonetheless, learning to listen to other people is a skill that will take you far in life."

Pause.

"Particularly with girls," I throw in. "Which may not matter to you right now, but will be something you'll thank me for later." (I wince inwardly, knowing that I should have stopped at 'far in life'. Edit Allison, edit.)

He froze, gave me that look that said 'too much information, Mum' and dropped his texta. "I'm going to play Lego now," he said, fleeing the room.

Meanwhile, Mr5 was taking advantage of the Life Lesson taking place to put a few extra, secret things on his Santa list. I had taken great care to this point to get him to read each item out to me as he wrote it. Just for practice, you understand.

So Santa, get ready, I'm sending this in early. You're going to need a few extra weeks to decipher it.



Please get back to me before January 14.

Do your kids write letters to Santa? Do you send them nice and early?


17 comments:

  1. It is pretty clear to me, it says,

    "Send help, my Mum is talking about getting along with girls by listening to stuff!...Oh and a new bike."

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  2. Looks to me like he wants the Wog Boys movies. Is he into big V8 motors?

    My kids never wrote to Santa.

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    1. LOL. I think that actually says something to do with a storm trooper carrier. I know. Go figure.

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  3. This is the first year that Little Miss 4 has sent a letter to Santa and we did it a few weeks ago to make sure that Santa had the appropriate time to get the requested gifts :)

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  4. We wrote last year in early December, but the problem with writing too early is my kids change their minds about what they want. It puts Santa under some pressure to get presents sorted.

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  5. Love this so much. My eldest "wrote" to FC last year age 3 and dictated to me in great detail what I should "put down on the paper please!" This year will be the first time he's written on his own and we will do that soon too. Luckily when he gets fixed ideas about things he doesn't change his mind so FC lay buyed the Fire Station Lego in June during the sales!!

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  6. i just loved this post
    your Mr8 sounds EXACTLY like my AJ
    and that conversation i hope to remember when i need it a little later down the track - handled perfectly!
    Lego must love Christmas ;)

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    1. Just remember to stop at 'take you far in life' and leave the rest out!

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  7. Miss Five has asked Santa for a rabbit and Miss Seven has requested a ginger kitten. We're screwed.

    Mr Eight also sounds similar to my Mr Nine who came home cross because (as he put it) he can't talk to the other kids in his class about space without them giggling every time he says Uranus.

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    1. LOL! I had to explain the Uranus giggling to Mr8 earlier this year during a brief space crush. You have to admit, it's kind of funny...

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  8. I'm loving Mr5's letter! We get in early too, so Santa has time to hit the sales, and miss the crowds....I live in hope :)

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  9. History is my life! Hilarious! I don't know about that Gangnam stuff either but I guess I'm not the target audience haha.

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