Hey, it's Brian, and before we get started, just a quick note that this episode and the other five in this special series discussed Santa Claus, but not in a way that younger listeners could appreciate.

If there are little ones with an earshot, save this for later. Thanks.

What grade are you in in school?

I'm going into third grade.

I'll bet that means that you're really good at penmanship.

Do you do some writing?

Yeah.

Yeah, what do you like to write?

I like to write about stuff that I'm like about my life and stuff. I'm talking to my new friend Katie in North Carolina.

She's eight years old, which means that for...

How long have you been doing that?

A couple of years.

A couple of years.

She's been putting those penmanship skills to especially good use

sometime in early December.

I do it at the table.

And I use colored pencils. I see my Christmas wishes and write the ending

sentences. Like so many other kids who celebrate Christmas, she'll be putting pencil or

colored pencil to paper to say hello to Santa Claus and let him know what's on this year's Christmas wish list.

Her mom April did it before her.

The Toys R Us Toy Book would come out and then we would kind of go through and pick out what

we wanted in Toy Book and then kind of include that in the letter.

...