Dear Santa

each holiday season, at Thurston's work, they have stacks and stacks of letters, in which children ask Santa to send them a Christmas gift. the kids are either in group homes or some other foster-type environment and, let me tell you, the letters will cause even the hardest hearts to soften. as he does every year, T brings home a few letters and then sets off on finding the gifts that the children want.

Dear Santa,

I wanted a Barbie for Christmas, but my sister says
we need clothes more than Barbies. So can I please have some
clothes?

how can that not just break your heart? well, this year, we ended up with six letters, each more heartrending than the next. there are many reasons why i love Thurston. this week has showcased one of them, to wit, his generosity.

it took us many a day to assemble all the gifts but, happily, we have finally finished. for those of you who are not yet parents, i warn you, gift shopping for kids in Manhattan is no fun task. my advice? birth control until you move! anyhow, here is how our Santa Week went down:

Day One: Sunday Morning, 11am
T and i set off on a mission to what is surely the scariest place in the world: Toy 'R' Us, Times Square.*


imagine this scene with the addition of snow, slush and a million screaming kids.

first of all, right when you walk in they have photographers taking your picture, in case you want to purchase it (framed, for only $17.99!) on your way out. for the record, we didn't. second of all, there's a freaking ferris wheel in the middle of the store. like Toy 'R' Us wasn't enough of a kiddie-scream provoker in and of itself without adding the attraction of a carnival ride... and third of all, it's in Times Square and, thus, has morphed from a store into a tourist** destination.

we knew we needed to get Barbies and Bionicles. the Barbies were fairly easy to locate due to the following display:


yes, the Barbies are sold within a giant replica of a pink Barbie house. Justin and i perused the entire section before finally settling on a couple of My Scene Barbies and Barbie accessories.
here is one of the Barbies we bought for a kid. it's called My Scene Barbie Goes to Hollywood


now this Barbie seems a nice gift. what i was horrified to discover, is that Mattel/Barbie actually make a My Scene Lindsay Lohan doll. now i am a fan of Lindsay, her dysfunctional family and their madcap hijinx as much as the next person (more, probably, since she's from my classy hometown. Merrick, represent, yo!) but, she is *no* role model! even less of a role model?

would your mother let you leave the Dreamhouse dressed like that??

i give you Bling Bling Barbie.
what the f? this Barbie is, in the parlance of our times, a complete ho!

after the Barbie session, wherein we bought a few My Scene Barbies and also a My Scene Party Pad (with working black light-- groovy!), we headed to the Bionicles section to get the little boy some of these new fangled Legos.

this guy is called Keetongu. i have no idea how he factors into the Bionicles story and, i assure you, there *is* a story. it involves the War at Visorak's Gate and the Tua and other Titans and other stuff about which i haven't a clue. bless the Lego Corporate lady who was stationed in the Bionicles section and was able to advise us.

since this is the longest post ever, i will save "Day Two" of our journey (Macy's--ack!) for another time. suffice it to say, i am still tired from this endeavor. don't even get me started on the horror involved in wrapping a Barbie "Party Pad."

---

* we're not idiots. the Toys 'R' Us Union Square became a Babies 'R' Us and Times Square is now the only Toys 'R' Us in the city.

** tourists = nightmare when it comes to efficiency and speed-of-walking. because it was the holiday season i refrained from my normal tack of dropping my shoulder and walking in a straight line whether or not people are milling aimlessly in my path. also, because it horrifies T when i do this, i did not mutter loudly as i walked by/around people, "it's called a sideWALK and not a sideSTOP for a reason, damn it."