Will wrote a letter to Santa this year: his first. It started off like this:
I especially like how he added the “L” to the end of “DEAR”. I also like that he decided SANTA should replace the “N” with an “L”. I thought this meant that he would be writing “DEAR SALTA” (“salta” the Spanish word for “Jump,” which is a word Will knows very well, so I was amused at this particular choice). But when I suggested he add the last “A” to the end (for he had just written out “SALT” at that point), he said he wanted to put both letter “As” together. So be it. “DEARL SAALT” is how Will’s first letter to Santa begins.
I took the rest on dictation:
Because he didn’t know how to write words for things (he is still learning his letters, as demonstrated above), I suggested he cut out some pictures. This worked out well, as I had collected fliers from the paper and could encourage him towards things (i.e.: things we knew he was getting). Paul and I got him the Black-n-Decker tool bench (below) and my parents got him a talking Lightening McQueen car (hence the picture of Lightening McQueen). He signed his and Kate’s name to end the letter. (“K” is a hard one to write and he did a really, really good job!)
Then, today, our mailbox had a letter back from Santa! It worked out well — I happened to be coming from the backyard when our mailman (Chris) was on the porch dropping off our mail and picking up the gift we’d left for him there. I told him about the letter from Santa and ran in to get it out of the freezer. Chris said he’d make a huge deal about how COLD it was next time he saw Will. So Chris dropped in the letter with all the rest of the mail and Will found the letter a minute later — freezing cold from the North Pole! Once we opened the package and unrolled the parchment, this is what the letter looked like:
Merry Christmas 2007! Ho Ho Ho!
Head Lima Bean | 25-Dec-07 at 6:15 am | Permalink
i love it! especially the ‘cold’ letter part…never would have thought of that. i’m glad that i can ummm…borrow all of your ideas after you’ve had a chance to test them out on real live toddlers! merry christmas. xoxo…gwen and co.
Cold Spaghetti | 25-Dec-07 at 10:03 pm | Permalink
Can’t take credit for the ice box idea… that was the brilliance of Los Pininos!!!