Dear Santa,

Well, with being sick and the family being sick...I didn't have a time-out this week. So, I will be joining Mama Kat's writers workshop. I really liked the Dear Santa letter idea. Calm me sappy, I actually started crying as I wrote this. Here goes!

Dear Santa,
It has been a long time since I could allow myself to believe in your magic. Somewhere between my cabbage patch doll and that first awful Christmas Eve where my biological father pretended I didn't exist, I lost the Christmas sparkle in my eye. I lost the giggle in my belly when the lights were turned low and the cookies warmed my hands as the lights from the tree reflected in my wide eyes. And then, just as quickly as you disappeared from my life, I realized you were there for me again. I saw the sparkle again, only it was those deep baby browns of my son and those bright and shiny blues of my daughter. I felt the giggle in my belly as I turned down the lights and my children stared at the tree together, my sweet and innocent baby girl trying to blow out those twinkling lights. I felt the magic in my step as I lovingly went down my own list of gifts for my treasured family and friends. And I felt that overwhelming love as I saw the excitement overflowing from my son as he screamed your name. So it is finally time to once again lay out those stockings and cookies and milk lovingly and with care. It is once again time to lay my head on my pillow and force my eyes closed as I wait in breathless anticipation for your magical day. Only this year, Santa, my list to you is much shorter.

I have nothing to ask for this year, Santa, for you have spoiled me already. You have given my womb the blessing of not only one but TWO healthy children. You have given me the precious gift of one of those children going into not one but TWO surgeries, and walking through the exit doors that other children will never see. You have given me a husband who loves me and a man who knows what it means to be a daddy. You have given me a roof over my head, a job to get us by, material goods that many would never even dare to dream of much less put on their lists. You have given me years with my grandparents and parents, a Church that feels like home, two eyes that see, two ears that hear, two legs that carry, and two arms that hold. So this year, Santa...please give me the present of a glimmer of hope for a child with cancer. Please stuff my stocking with shelter for a wife abused. Please decorate my tree with conceptions of healthy children for loving parents with empty arms. And if you could.....if it wouldn't be too much trouble.....could you please also leave under my tree a few thousand military men and women united with their families.

Merry Christmas, Santa!
Vicki