Letter from Santa

Oh ... I sure have done it now ... I am the worst mother ever!!  Just like every other child on the planet our sweet Kelzey and Carmyn like to write letter's to Santa.  And just like every other sensitive, collective mother, I like to not only write a letter back to them from Santa but also keep their letters that they wrote.  Well, typically I will put their letters in a secret place for future review and fun, found memories, little did I know the way-off future was not so way-off.   I got so busy this year that instead of putting it in the secret place I just shoved Kelzey's letter in the drawer of our writing desk.  The girls never look in there and besides, I was going to take care of it later. 
Unfortunately Kelzey found the letter before I remembered to move it.  For Christmas she received and ITunes gift card from Santa and really wanted to get some Michael Jackson songs to put on her ipod.  I told her to wait because I had a few MJ cd's and we could just pull some music from there.  Instead of going to go find the cd's for her (too busy of course) she decided to start looking for them without me and one of the first places she looked was in my not-so-secret hiding place, the writing desk drawer.  She of course found her letter from Santa and was heart broken =(  She pulled it out and asked why I had her letter to Santa and wanted to know if it was really Santa who wrote her back that year or if it was someone else. 
My heart dropped!  What was I to say to her ... poor little thing!  I took her aside and told her that it was Santa who wrote to her, as it was every year, it was just *her* special Santa.  She was confused, with good reason.  I then asked her if she remembered why Santa was a part of Christmas and what he represented.  She responded that he was there to remind people to give and to be generous.  I asked if she really believed that this is what he symbolized, and she did.  I then explained that everyone has *their own special Santa*.  That it is hard for 1 man to teach everyone in the world that concept so instead mom and dad (me and Spencer) got to be her and Carmyn's special Santa's - that we were blessed to be able to teach them about giving to others and showing them how to do that and that they would remember it more if it came from *Santa* instead of just mom and dad. 
We then talked about how when she gets married and has kids she get's to be their *special Santa* to teach them about giving and being generous.  She seemed to take to that idea - although she was still sad, she accepted what it really meant to *be Santa*. 
She has a wise-old heart and soul in her.  She then got all excited and asked if that meant she got to stay up late next year and be Santa with us for Carmyn and Tayson - heheh - so cute.  I said as long as she keeps the secret alive and does not say anything to Carmyn or her friends she most definitely can =) 
What a great girl she is - I was afraid this moment would scare her and make her not trust us - but instead she took it with understanding and came out with even a better meaning of what it means to give to others and the joy it brings to us.  She truly is an amazing girl!!