Lately, I feel myself getting old.  Not just physically but mentally old.  I notice myself being crankier.  More and more the little things that use to create “Total Awesome Wonderment” (TAW) don’t as much anymore.  I need to fight the tide. Letters to Santa may be a start!

I remember, when my kids were younger, I use to love toy shopping for them at Christmas.  I was still a kid at heart myself and I would say to myself I want this toy it is so TAW.  Shopping for toys was a great time.  It was one of those things that created that TAW feeling that makes life fun.  It is not the same now.  I still enjoy trying to creatively come up with gift ideas but it’s just not the same fun as toy shopping back then.

Sitting in Mammoth right after Thanksgiving I remember reading an article form these folks who would go down to the post office and ask for letters to Santa that were from needy homes.  They would read the kid’s Santa wish list and then get the toys the kids had asked for.  They would take them to the kid’s house, put them on the porch, and do a doorbell ditch. 

At the time I thought what a great idea but never acted on it.  Now in my search for little things to create that awesome wonderment in my life this idea came back to me.  Turns out other folks thought it was a good idea too and it has become an official program of the United States Post Office called Operation Santa.  Certain (meaning not all) Post Offices support the program.  You can go down to Post Office read some letters and adopt the letters that warm your heart.  You buy the presents and return them to the post office that you got the letters from.  The Post Office then delivers them to the families.

What an awesome win-win TAW activity.  I get to go toy shopping again but with a purpose.  Some kid, that got dealt a cruddy hand in life, get a pleasant surprise for the holidays.  Going toy shopping like the Blues Brothers with a “mission from God attitude” cannot be anything but fun and a way of re-kindling that total TAW feeling again!  So I am going to try Operation Santa this Christmas Season.  I am going to go out on a limb and recommend maybe you do it too!  If you do maybe we can have a wrapping party and another chance to create another TAW moment.

To find out what Post Offices have the program click here.  I would recommend checking the list after December 1st as it gets updated every year.  For more information on the who, what, when and how(s) go to the site How to be an Elf.

So ya with me?  Then become an Elf and let’s go toy shopping! Let me know if you do.  We can share what cool things we got.