Santa's Gift

On Monday, December 9, Braden had a clinic appointment and we got really good news.

Not only did his counts qualify him to receive round 5 of chemo for his mds cancer, his platelets were at 151,000.

That is normal!!

And that is the first time EVER I can remember Braden's platelets being normal.

It means the chemo is very likely working to quiet the mds...platelets would lower if it was not working.

After that awesome news, we had no choice but to skip school for the rest of the day and have a detour!

Okay, we had a choice...

but the going to school choice was just not a good one.  LOL!

So we went to the mall and Build A Bear. Braden has had four gift certificates for a long time, and we just haven't had time to go.

Well...we saw an ad for Rudolph stuffed animal on television...and he was SO excited.

He stood at the television with his mouth gaping open...once the ad was over, he turned to me and pointed to the television and said, "IT'S RUDOLPH!!!!!!"

So we went to Build A Bear to make a Rudolph.

I have been to Build A Bear twice with the boys...one time was just Zach and he was about 4 at the time. The guy at the store kept trying to up-sell him on everything (like I think they are supposed to) and Zach was having none of it. It was absolutely HILARIOUS!!

"Why do I need THAT?" he would say every time the dude tried to sell him something else. It was priceless!

Well...Braden quickly spotted Rudolph and beside Rudolph was Clarice...the female doe who encourage Rudolph, told him his red nose was glorious because it was different...which is pretty much what Braden's friends do for him with his autism and cancer...

and then she got "Abominable Snowman-napped" while searching for Rudolph and then he rescued her to everyone's delight. ;)

He then very sweetly started to sing her song from the movie in the most beautiful falsetto voice...

"There's always tomorrow...for dreams to come true..."

I cried...

so he got Clarice too.

And we got Frosty for Zach...shhh, it's his Christmas present to his brother.

He kept singing that song the entire time he was putting the stuffing into Clarice...he kissed her heart and when the lady told him to make a wish when he put it in, he said, "she's a good friend".

I cried again....to me, it meant that he was thinking about his good friends.

He is the most blessed boy in the world to have SO many wonderful friends....

they see Braden as a special boy who they love...not a strange kid who has autism,

and cancer.

Our school staff and parents are REMARKABLE and so very caring!

So by this time, I had already broken into tears multiple times....the poor girl helping us asked me if I was okay.

That's a dangerous question...one that garnered a response of

"relatively". :)

We gave the animals their baths, named them and paid for them with our gift cards and left the store with three huge Build A Bear boxes...no one tried up up-sell us anything!

WOO HOO!!

It was really a fun time!

Braden carried Rudolph in his box and he showed him EVERYTHING in the Disney Store...which was very smartly located next to Build A Bear.

We escaped without a single purchase.

Seriously!  :)

We walked out of the Disney Store and around the corner to leave and then we saw him...

Red hat, white beard....

Braden saw him first,

he turned to me yelled so loudly everyone turned and smiled as he screamed,

"IT'S SANTA CWAUS!!!!!!  MOM!!!! IT'S SANTA CWAUS!!!!!"

And then he simply bolted...

his Rudolph box flailing and bouncing beside him.

I freaked out because he ran so fast and there were many people....I started to run behind him asking him to stop.

He did not stop...

He did not slow...

He did not go through the line (thankfully no one else was waiting).

He climbed under the waiting line ropes and ran to Santa.

By the time I got there, Santa looked at me and said, "Is this for me?"

He was holding the Rudolph box in his gloved hands.

I told him no, that he had just made it.  And Santa said,

"He ran up to me, jumped in my lap and said...Santa, this Rudolph is for you"

Braden turned to me, ran to me and was jumping up and down. He hugged me and said, "Mom, I give the Rudolph to Santa".

Well...more tears.

Santa told him that he had the real Rudolph so he could keep his but that Rudolph would definitely be leading the sleigh this year and that he would stop at our house with Santa.

Braden thought that was pretty cool (after I interpreted it for him). Autism can make understanding stuff like that a little tricky. :)

He took a picture with Santa, picked up Rudolph and off we went.

Rudolph and Clarice haven't left his sight except for school hours, they are that special to him.

But he was willing to give Rudolph to Santa.

There's a lesson there.

For all of us...

Christmas isn't about getting....

It's about giving....

and it doesn't have to be "stuff"....

it can simply be about giving love, and kindness,

and hope.

Monday gave us all three!