A letter from Santa

A few weeks ago Kristopher received a letter from Santa in the mail. We happen to live 10 minutes away from "Christmas, Florida" and this cute fundraiser was held I believe by Mike's cousin's school to do letters to Santa. Grandma decided to send one to each of the 4 kids and asked for names of friends, teachers, and people. Sure enough a few weeks later four letters arrived stamped from Christmas, Florida and inside were letters from Santa. Unfortunately, the plan went a bit askew when I opened the second letter to read and realized before beginning that each letter was exactly the same as the last! So I put the three little ones' letters away saying I'd read theirs to them later and Kristopher was happy as a clam to have heard from the Big Guy.

A few days later I found out that he had surfaced the other letters and asked someone else to read them to him... Not realizing they were all the same (and probably not knowing the impact that would make...) they complied and I heard about it later that Santa's notes to each of them were all the same. Oops...

Kristopher and Brianna went to a breakfast with Santa and received this letter so we didn't really do anything else or attempt a Santa photo this year (we knew Emma would flip out... maybe next year...). In fact, with Kristopher's recent behavior issues we've reminded him that "he'd better watch out, better not cry, better not pout..." because Santa was coming. Last night we went to our local mall (hall is more like it since you can see from one end to the next...) and I was surprised to realize that Santa was there complete with a line of kids ready to sit with him and have their pictures taken.

As we walked by we reminded Kristopher- Santa's right there, he knows whether you've been bad or good and he might not bring you a gift if you're not good! To this Kristopher replied "He won't know if no one tells him." Um... ok smarty pants, but that guy that just walked by might be one of his elves, and he might even ask Jesus to tell him since Jesus sees everyone and is always nearby. Kristopher still wasn't going for it. No look of belief as I tried to convince him he needed to be good for Santa to bring him a gift. Finally, the truth came out of him. "Santa doesn't know I've been really naughty because when I saw him and when he wrote me a letter he didn't say it, he said I was on the 'nice' list and always would be!"

YIKES!

So... why behave when it doesn't matter? Yes, I'd LOVE for him to decide he wants to be good for the sake of being good, but sheesh, can't he at least be good because of the fear of no gifts from Santa??? LOL

So last night this little elf got to work and made a nice little letter from Santa which was stamped and post-marked (with pen) and placed on Kristopher's sink. It said how Santa heard us talking and he was hoping that Kristopher was going to get better and that's why he didn't mention his misbehavior. It also said that the celebration of Jesus' birth is a great reason to be good, plus it's one of Santa's rules- you have to be good to get a toy from Santa! It went on a bit about how good it was to see Kristopher out caroling and ringing bells the other night and how he's got K's letter asking to be a knight for Christmas. It ended out with saying that K's gift is set aside and Santa hopes that K will be good so he can be added on the 'nice' list and Santa will be able to bring him a new toy in just a few more days.

Kristopher was so good today. Think that did the trick? LOL