Dear Santa, You’re Real Right?

Dear Santa,

I know this is your busy time of year but I have a few questions.  I hope you don’t mind.  You see, I’m afraid to ask Mom and Dad because they say visiting you is their favourite part of Christmas and they’ll be sad when we grow up and might not want to visit you anymore.  I don’t want to make them sad Santa.  I don’t want them to think I’m too big to come see you anymore because I want to!  I really do, I promise.

It’s just that, well, I’m 9 years old and I’m in 4th Grade and some of the kids at school say some pretty mean things about you.  Don’t worry, I tell them they’re wrong.  Like when Matthew said you didn’t exist.  I told him that you do so exist, because last year I sat on your lap and I talked to you at the mall.

He says his mom puts all the gifts under the tree and it’s not you at all.  I told Matthew, maybe he’s on the Naughty List and his mom HAS to put the presents because she knows Santa wouldn’t stop at a house of a kid on the Naughty List.  That’s the whole point of the Naughty List.  Right Santa?

So, I don’t want to hurt your feelings or anything, but I just need to know Santa, you’re real right?

Love Katie

*****

Dear Katie,

I am part of the magic of Christmas Spirit.  People who love Christmas as much as you and your parents do, have Christmas Spirit in their hearts.   If you believe in magic and have an open heart, that’s what really counts.  I promise that if you believe in me, I am real.

Don’t worry what kids at school say.  You and I know the truth.  We know that your heart is full of Christmas Spirit and that’s all that really matters.  It’s not just believing in me that counts, but it’s also the spirit of giving, the spirit of loving and being a good person all year around.  It’s how you feel in your heart.  That’s what Christmas Spirit really is.

As long as you believe, you don’t need to worry about trying to convince anyone else that I am real.  I don’t anyway.

I hope you will never be too old to think of me at Christmas or wave to me at the mall.  One day, a long, long time from now, I hope you will bring your children to visit me.  I promise you that I will love them just as much as I love you today.

Merry Christmas Katie.

With All My Love,

Santa Claus

***

Have you seen this website:  http://portablenorthpole.com?  You can go there and register your child to receive a personalized email from Santa himself.  It takes all of 3 minutes and the video email you will receive will bring a tear to your eye.

My 9 year old just received her email and she is over the moon.  Proof for another year that she still has the Christmas spirit in her heart.  I will cherish these soon to be fleeting moments for a lifetime!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Enjoy your little ones as they grow.

Give them an extra snuggle and hold them tight this Christmas season.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

I always look forward to theWeekly Photo Challenge.

I’ve been absent lately.  This is such a busy time of year.  So much to get done by the big day.  There hasn’t been a lot of time to sit still.

My little one has been home sick for 2 days.  So I’ve been forced to stop and breathe.

Enjoy your day everyone!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflection

Similar shots but different enough.  I couldn’t decide, so I’m using both.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful

Thankful to those who protect us today and and everyday.

An Agoraphobic Takes Manhatten

If you’ve ever visited New York City and, like me, you’re from just some regular place, you know that New York is like nowhere else in the world.  It’s a fantastically loud, vibrant, dirty, entertaining, diverse, beautiful, busy and fabulous sea of humanity.  Maneuvering through the streets requires comfy shoes and lots of  patience.  It is sensory overload at it’s finest and you haven’t even gotten out of Times Square yet.

This year we have V.I.P. tickets to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday.  Although we have not been to the parade before, New York at Christmas is an annual tradition for our family.  There’s nothing like it.  The hustle and bustle, the lights, the crowds.  We are going to a couple of shows, out for some lovely meals, to see Santa at Macy’s and to the 9/11 Memorial.  To top it all off, the weather is supposed to be beautiful.

I am dreading the whole thing.

We have known about this trip since July.  In July, a trip so far off sound like a great idea.  My husband and I love New York.  We would love to be able to live there one day.  The only glitch in that plan is that I would have to live as a shut-in.  Why?  I am not fond of crowds.  Actually, HATE is not a strong enough word to express how I feel about crowds.

As the day approaches, everyone else is getting more and more excited, and me, well, my chest is constricting and I can’t catch my breath!  Well well well, isn’t this just gonna be the super most funnest trip ever?  We’re gonna have fun dammit, if it kills me!

“The definition of agoraphobia is a fear of being in a crowded situation from which one either cannot escape or from which escaping would be difficult or humiliating.”

As an added bonus, recently I have started suffering from the occasional panic attack.  Like the kind where I can’t breathe and I want to run and escape and I’m sweating and my heart is beating so hard I’m certain it will leap out of my mouth at any minute and land on the floor.  Yeah, just like that.  And my husband is staring at me, with teeth clenched, all like ‘Pull yourself together’ and then pretends not to know me.  (I respect that.  I would do the same to him if he carried on with such nonsense).    It’s pretty awesome in a ‘I may just lose my mind right here and now and um….don’t mind me while I strip off my clothes because I’m pretty sure this shirt is trying to strangle me!’  way.

So yeah, New York City, during the parade, sounds like a great idea doesn’t it?

I never really put it all together until recently.  I just thought I was extremely irritable.  Secretly, I’ve been suspicious that I’ve been completely losing my mind for a while now.  Recently I went to the doctor.  I braced myself for worst.

I tell the doctor:  This feeling overwhelms me at really opportune times like in really crowded places.  Volume + Crowds= Total Nightmare!   At movie theatre concession stands, at amusement parks, in loud restaurants that think it’s kitchy to crowd the table with every condiment known to man, 3 different menus, and a paper towel dispenser.  (UGH!!  total nightmare)  I can feel my chest constricting just thinking about it.  I’m pretty sure it’s fatal.

Me:  Give it to me straight Doc.  Is it fatal?

Doc:  No, it’s not fatal.  It’s Anxiety and you are experiencing panic attacks which by the way are extremely common.

Me:  So, just to clarify NOT fatal?

Doc:  Correct.

So, on the bright side, Anxiety is a walk in the park compared to losing every marble in my head or complete fatality right?  Turns out what I thought was impending doom is a manageable condition!  So that good news right?  The doctor gave me some happy pills, said ‘You’ll be fine.  Have fun in New York!’  Just like that he was gone.  Hope for a fun family trip had been restored that quickly.  I don’t know how it’s going to go once I see sea of humanity but I’m up for the challenge.

Bags are packed – Check!

Tickets and Passports – Check!  Check!

Happy Pills – Check!

Hoping for the best – Check!

Lots to be thankful for – CHECK!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

Um…I’d Like to Thank Jesus and My Mama

Okay you guys, I am blushing!  I received Liebster nominations this weekend from two very kind fellow bloggers who are obviously as wise as they are beautiful.  My sincere thanks goes out to thecheekydiva.com and daysift.com.  Thank you ladies!

Interestingly, one nomination is a nod for bloggers with less than 200 followers and the other is for bloggers with less than, (cue the constricting chest) 3,000 followers.  3,000!!!!  Do people actually have more than 3,000 followers?  More than 200 even?

I hit 70 awesome followers this weekend and wrote each name on a piece of paper, threw them all on the bed and rolled on them.  Never mind!  I heard it as soon as I said it.  That was too much information and now I’ve made you feel uncomfortable.  I apologize!  But I swear to god, I was absolutely giddy with delight.  I’d put you all in my pocket and take you home with me but — again, too far right?  Dammit!

The third illustrious award that I was nominated for this weekend, once again by my sister from another mother was the Family of Bloggers Award.  This award is near and dear to my heart since thecheekydiva.com and I have concluded we are probably long lost sisters but are both unwelcome at the upcoming family reunion!  I’ve decided I’ll still send a nice egg salad with double mayo and may or may not keep it refrigerated because I’m mature like that.

I am truly humbled to be acknowledged by my peers.  I live vicariously through them and their successes and when good things happen to them I’m as proud as proud can be.  I cheer them on as though they are my own kids in the final round of a spelling bee and in return all I ask is a nod in the dedication of their first book.  So to be mentioned by them because they think my little blog is worth mentioning, well that’s just about the weirdest nicest thing I can ever imagine them doing for me.  Just little old me who likes to rant about random crap on my little old blog.

As part of the award, I am to tell you 11 things about myself.  I’ll wait here while you get your slumber mask and blankie.

1.  I defriended my mom from Facebook because all her status updates were about church potlucks and missing pets.  (In her defense, I don’t think one has anything to do with the other).  The jello mold industry is alive and well thanks to my mother and her gal pals.

2.  I overthink things.  Everything.  No matter how simple or mundane.

3.  I suffer from guilt.  About everything.  No matter how simple or mundane.  Interestingly, I did not feel guilty about defriending my mom from Facebook.  Hmm!

4.  I hate shopping.  I cannot express this point strongly enough.

5.  I love Nutella.  One time I ate the whole jar with a spoon and when the kids asked me where it was, I told them I found bugs in it and had to throw it out.

6.  I should exercise more but I’m sort of very lazy.

7.  A friend and I once joked about having wine smoothies for breakfast in front of a PTO mom and we never got invited to another meeting.

8.  I used to worry that other moms judged me.  I don’t anymore.  If they are wasting time judging me, that’s less time they are judging someone else.  I consider it a public service that I provide.  You are welcome everyone!

9.  I love my kids but their constant bickering makes me want to drink bleach.

10.  I am fascinated by true crime shows and documentaries.

11.  My husband thinks I need an intervention because of my love of crime shows.  So just to make him nervous, I like to throw ‘life insurance’ into random conversations!  Then I smile sweetly in a crazy lady sort of way.  He does not find it funny.

The second part of the awards requires that I pay my good fortune forward and nominate 11 others who, like me, are fabulously talented and whose audience totals less than 3,000.  I would have picked the ‘under 200′ category, but these blogs all may have 2,999 followers already.  Many of them have even been Freshly Pressed.  (Well la-tee-da!!!  I run with the fancy schmancy crowd.)  They definitely deserve it.  Their mantles are already full, I am sure, with accolades so this is mainly just for me to let them know I really enjoy their work.

Without further ado, I tip my hat to the following people and strongly suggest you check them out if you haven’t already.

…And the Liebster Awards go to:

charlotteroseblog.wordpress.com

littlemisswordy.wordpress.com

javaj240.wordpress.com

whoatethedaisies.wordpress.com

dontunderthinkit.wordpress.com

keepingitreal.wordpress.com

adlibb3d.wordpress.com

travelgardeneat.com

40isthenew13.wordpress.com

Enjoy your day everyone!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Green

Wishing you all a wonderful day!