Dear camp, this is why my boy is bringing steak sauce

Dear camp staff,

When you unpack our son's duffel bag this week after my husband drops him off, you might be surprised to find a bottle of steak sauce. Here's the deal.

When Max decides that he's into something, he gets really, really into it. So after a trip to Disneyland in February, he decided that he was moving to California. You will hear him repeating this often during his stay—he likes to say "California is my home!" about every 10 to 15 minutes. I choose not to tell him that's wrong, or humor him to the extreme. Instead I say things like, "I can totally understand wanting to move to California!" He will tell you that the state he lives in is "disgusting" because it gets cold and it snows. Agree or not, your choice. Yes, last year he was focused on moving to Orlando, but that was so 2018. He is all about L.A.

Oh, and steak. We're not sure how or when it started, but Max now has a thing for steak. We do not expect anyone at camp to serve him steak. But when he decided that he was packing some A1 sauce, we figured, why not? It might come in handy for a bbq'd burger. Or he might just like to keep it propped on his nightstand so he can gaze at it adoringly. At home, he insists that we display our growing collection of steak sauces on the Lazy Susan on the kitchen counter. It's a good thing that he only chose to bring one little old bottle of steak sauce to camp.

We are grateful that you are cool with letting Max be Max, including the fact that for the last couple of years he's worn a red plastic firefighter hat  emblazoned with the name "Fireman Max!" in red marker. This year, the hat's not coming, just the steak sauce, but he still likes to be called Fireman Max. 

I'm pretty sure Max is not going to insist on steak for dinner. However, he might ask to wear the Los Angeles t-shirt his dad got him off Etsy every single day. Dave meant to buy a couple more before camp started but forgot. You might have to put your foot down the third day in a row of him wearing it. Although heck, it is camp.

It will bring Max great joy if you talk about his love of steak and his desire to move to California. Even better if you talk about eating steak in California, although he is also planning to eat a lot of mac 'n cheese there. He does not have any specific plans about what he is going to do in California, other than visit Disneyland, but no matter. The weather will be warm and will all be good.

So thank you for taking good care of our boy, once again. Let us know if he needs more steak sauce.

Ellen