THAT'S MY BOY
I like to do whatever Michelle O'Neil does, and she wrote about the biggest hits of her kids' Christmas, so I need to do that too.
When we took Rojo to visit Santa a few weeks ago, he sat on his lap and looked bewildered when Santa said, "What do you want for Christmas?" Rojo, fully believing in Santa at age 11, but not fully believing in the whole "wanting" thing, answered, "You tell me," to Santa.
"How about a train?" Santa suggested desperately.
"Yes! That is a great idea, Santa! Yes! I want a train!" Rojo exuded.
Hopping off Santa's lap he comes rushing over to me, "Mom! I am going to get a train from Santa!"
Now, a little back story. The boy has never shown an interest in trains. We've had train videos. We've had all the Thomas "system." We've had trains, trains and more trains at our house. Not. One. Bit. Of. Interest. I finally packed them all up and gave them away. Years. Ago.
STM decided to spiff up his old train set from childhood, still in a box in his parents' basement. We wrap it in Santa paper (you all do that, right? Separate paper from Santa?) and put it out on Christmas Eve.
Rojo wakes at 6:00 jumping up and down (literally) and says, "I want to go see my train! Where the hell is my train? Is that my damn
train?" he asks, pointing to the box lying beside his bursting with gifts stocking.
Pulling the wrapping off so fast it all but sparks, he sees the train, grabs it, hugs it, dances, swears, yells, jumps and is thrilled for the rest of the day. Doesn't actually play with it for more than 5 minutes, but thrilled.
He had fun opening his brand new Nintendo DS Lite, and several hundred dollars worth of other "things" but the train, ah, the train.
As he brushed his teeth (in the laundry room sink, where he always does, don't ask me why) he says through his foamy mouth, "This is the best Christmas I ever had."
"I'm so glad," I respond. "What were the two best things about it?"
"The train!" he answers.
"Yes, that was such a great gift from Santa. What else was great about Christmas?" I probe.
"You were there!" he answers with a look of total "duh" on his face.
He just bought himself another year of "Not a mark on him!"
*Photo from Jupiter Images
4 comments:
Thank you for this. LOVE the Rodeo stories. LOVE seeing life through his eyes. LOVE that you love him so much. LOVE that he loves his train. LOVE that he believes in Santa and that you believe in him. LOVE.
This is truly the magic of Santa, and Rojo gets it! Such a great Christmas story, one that made me smile.... a lot. This is too funny, and sweet. Loving Rojo, and the way he sees the world.
Loving his mom too!
XOXOX
Geez, this reminds me of when Santa brought me ice skates (they were used, because Santa likes to recycle ya know).
I'm so glad Rojo had a great Christmas. He has some good priorities, that one. Wonder where he got 'em. :)
Really a delicious post... a wonderful glimpse into the quirks and loves of Rodeo...
duh... you were there.
Love it
-e-
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