Dear Santa

(Back by popular demand: After a long hiatus, the Max and Zahra Chronicles finally resume! Between moving into the new house and subsequently misplacing the USB cable to connect the digital camera to the computer, we had a few problems getting back into the swing of things. Now that everything has pretty much settled down, I would expect the Chronicles to continue as usual. No promises, but of course, I'll try...)

About a week before Christmas, I sat down with Zahra to try and help her write a letter to Santa. While she was quite excited about this task, it was definitely a task that definitely tried my patience several times. I waited until Max was sound asleep in a deep nap before I even attempted to try and help Zahra write the "long" letter to Santa. Maybe she was too excited, maybe she's just a kid, but she was being rather silly and having her actually write the letters correctly and with enough room to fit in the allotted space was quite challenging.

Translation of kindergarten handwriting:

Dear Santa,

This is what I would like for Christmas.

1. Little people

2. Number toys

3. A suit case

Thank you.

Love, Zahra

Above, we have the proud author of her very first handwritten letter to Santa. Just before we put it into an envelope, Zahra asked, "What about Max's letter?" to which I replied, "That's one of the fun things about writing, you're able to write your own letter to Santa Claus. When Max gets older and he can write, then he'll write one too. Until then, Santa just has to guess about what Max would like for Christmas."

In the car, on the way to the post office, Zahra studies the envelope intently.

Caught in the act and now playfully defensive...

First she tried to stick it in the wrong way...

... then I helped her get it in the right place,

and the letter is off to the North Pole.

(Thanks to the letter, Santa was able to provide everything Zahra asked for! What a lucky girl.)