I originally wanted to title this post, "The day my 5 year old became a man." Because that's how I feel :(
It started out like a normal dinner. We were eating pizza and talking, and everything was fine. As I was cleaning up the plates and cups from the kids table, it happened. I heard the question that I was not anticipating for at least another 5 years. I wasn't even preparing a speech for it yet, and I at least assumed my husband would be there addressing this with me. But no, there I stood, alone in the kitchen when all of a sudden, out of NO where I hear, "is Santa real?" come out of my 5 year old's mouth. WHAT???!!!!!! I could not believe my ears!!!!!!!!! I looked up at him, and calmly said, "what?" wanting to see how serious he was about that question. He looked at me with serious eyes, and repeated his question. Me, with a slight smirk on my face, racing through my brain to figure out the right answer for him. It wasn't coming, I was drawing a complete blank, and I was now trying to think of someone I could call to help me figure this out. Meanwhile, my sweet and innocent, first born child, is staring at me, waiting on an answer. I panicked....totally unprepared for this! I asked him why he was asking this all of a sudden, he said he just needed to know if all of it was real or not. Now a battle was taking place in my brain, of course I wanted to tell him the truth, especially since he just flat out asked me. On the other hand, I wanted him to still believe, because I think it is a major part of a kids childhood, and I didn't want that to be ruined for him, let alone all of his friends that he could possibly ruin it for! I finally decided what to do.....I told him the truth.....there was no Santa. I reminded him the real reason we celebrate Christmas, is to remember the birth of Jesus. We give each other presents to celebrate his birthday. But that wasn't enough for my-smarter than he should be-5 year old. He kept on asking, "but who is Santa?" Since I was making this up as I went, I was struggling for answers, and then it dawned on me, St Nicholas WAS a real person, and he is what Santa is modeled after. So I explained that to my son, and started to see it sinking in now. I also said that mom's and dad's give the presents also. Then he wanted to know who made all the toys, so naturally, I said Target :) To which he replied, "but if he goes during the day, people will know he's Santa!" :) He was asking all the right questions, "how does he carry that big bag of toys," and "who eats the cookies," and so forth. He was asking all these grown up questions that I had no idea were in his tiny brain! My sweet and loving baby, was now practically a grown up! I mean what's next, "the talk"???!!!!! Goodness! At the beginning of this conversation, I new it was something that was going to be memorable, so I got my phone and recorded the whole thing :) (to which I won't bore you with the 7 minute video) Looking back at it, I just don't know how to feel, it's such a cute video, but sad at the same time. I just can't believe he knows the truth already...at least we won't have to deal with that stupid elf on the shelf this year :) Long story short, I again told him the real reason we celebrate anything in December, is to celebrate our Saviors birth. The true reason for the season, is a little baby born all those years ago, who would eventually change the world. So this coming Christmas season will be a little different for us, but I am so glad I get to share truth with my boy, I'm so glad that now, he can focus on what really matters and what life is all about.
