Dear Santa, in July

Yes, I know, I know, it is July, not December. However, remember at the beginning of the week when I said that I had pulled out some old (really old) diaries of mine? Well, I had a really grand time reading through some of them. My first very first diary was bright pink with dancing ballerina teddy bears across the front and I was eight years old when I got it. I remember getting the diary when we were on a family trip to Iowa, I was so excited that it had a lock and key - that way my brothers would not be able to get in and read my deepest, darkest secrets. Well, my first deepest, darkest entry went something like this:

Friday, Dec 8, 1989
IOWA
Once I went to Iowa. I had great fun. I went to see my uncle Dave and I went to a motel and went swimming.

My next entry was a little darker:
Saturday, Jan 27, 1990
My sister likes to listen to tapes, her favorite one is The Baby. I hate it when she listens. It gives me a headache. I hate it so much. Sometimes I like it.

On the front page there were questions like, "What is your favorite..." and I discovered that my favorite colors were still blue, green, and purple (though now add brown), I loved roast, carrots and pizza (all still very true), and I wanted to be a mother and an ice skater (half of which came true). Although, at one point in the journal I also wrote that I wanted to be a writer - things haven't changed much.

I found myself laughing hysterically at my sister who was going to name her kids Ariel, Tina, Triton, Eric, and Grimsby, all names of characters from the movie The Little Mermaid. But, probably the funniest thing that I found was a letter written on lined elementary note paper with leaves flitting across the corner.It went something like this:

November 14, 1992
Dear Santa Claus,
I am sorry, I am 11 years old and I don’t believe in you anymore. My mom is making me write this letter so that my little sisters can still believe in you. I think that is dumb.
I would like a Barbie Sharing Sisters gift set in the JCPenny’s magazine, on page 383. I would like a doll on page 376, her name is Leslie (or, if not that doll, the doll named Mandy on that same page). I would like a pink or blue stereo player and the set on page 123 that is green or blue. I hope you have the JCPenny’s catalog so you can figure out what I am talking about.
Thank you.
Love,
Heidi

Hilarious. The whole voice of it still sounds so much like me now! Except I definitely don't want a Barbie gift set...maybe a nice pretty set of dishes or some pretty jewlery. I am much more into pretty things now ;) So very different, yet still so much the same.