Christmas in July...

means there is TONS of explaining to do with the little man regarding "Santa Claus", the "naughty and nice list", why Santa was at the zoo today and how come he wasn't wearing his 'winter clothing' and then the BIG QUESTION "Is he the REAL Santa mommy?"

So of course, throughout the entire time we were walking up and down the paths, looking at the many different animals and reading about them; my little guy asked me these questions and wanted serious answers.
People around me smiled as I tried to answer him in the best possible way, without smiling and making him feel as if the questions were a bit too much and a wee bit too early.
After all was said and done, he decided the following answers were to his liking:
(some of the answers were aided by "Santa")

-Santa starts the naughty and nice list five months before Christmas. He starts making his trek back up to the north pole (from his holiday house down south) and visits different places to see how all the girls and boys are doing. Santa told him all the boys and girls start on the "nice list" and depending on how they are from one Christmas to the other, that is how they can move to the naughty list or stay on the nice list. (thank you Santa!) and yes, waking up your sister when she is fast asleep does mean you get a 'mark' next to your name that could put you on the naughty list (again, thank you Santa!)

-Santa has summer clothing. It would be way to hot for him to have a vacation down south without having shorts and a t-shirt. But today, it was a little too chilly for Santa to wear his shorts (thank you Santa) and Mrs. Claus said "put your pants on dear, the weather says it will be chilly in Ottawa." (again thank you Santa)

The one question I didn't answer too directly was "is this the real Santa mommy" I told him that if he believed that this was the real Santa, then he is the real Santa.
I told him that Santa has TONS of elves that go around and help Santa to make sure that the 'naughty and nice' list is up to date. So if he believes that the Santa that he is seeing is the real one, then that is his decision.

With that, my little guy was very happy.

He had a serious discussion with Santa and he also added a few things which included a very "early" list of what he would like for Christmas. I thought it would be LITTERED with toys, but it was just one thing.

"Can you make sure you don't forget to bring my baby sister something. It's her first Christmas. Mommy says it's special. She's only a baby and I don't think she can be good or bad. She can only be a baby."
This just melted my heart.

But right before we left chatting with Santa he said
"oh, I'd like a new transformer"