A Legend Comes to Life

So, every year we read the Legend of Papa Noel with the kids (the book pictured on the right). It is one of my favorite Louisiana stories/traditions/legends--whatever you want to call it. We love reading about it and especially going to see the bonfires on Christmas Eve. It's very fun for Tyler, especially, since he is a little older and understands a lot better.

So this year we found out that Papa Noel himself was going to be at the zoo on the first Saturday in December and I just knew we had to be there! And it was a perfect way to do a little something together as a family for Tyler's birthday (since his birthday was the following Monday and it would be hard to do something that day). So, off to the zoo we went. In December. In the COLD weather! Yeah, it was cold enough that it had snowed across the lake the night before. The high was like 41 degrees that day I believe. And for here, that is COOOOOLD! But we were up for the challenge!

And the advantage of going when it is so cold is that there were only about 20 other people at the zoo that day, so we walked right up to Mr. Noel himself without the slightest line (I'm sure the zoo folks weren't thrilled by the lack of people, but we were!). So Tyler got to sit on his lap and when he asked Tyler what he wanted for Christmas, he said he wanted a toy pirogue (which is TOTALLY from the book) and it totally cracked me up. When he talks to Santa, he lists various other things, but when it was Papa Noel, he just played right along and asked for his very own toy pirogue for Christmas. Such a funny kid!

And Sam wasn't having much of it as you can see. But this was pretty good progress to get this close!
And they had a live Cajun band and had the Cajun cottage all decked out for Christmas. It was so much fun!
And then it was time to see a few animals...

And then we saw the schedule for the day and realized we were in for another treat. They were giving all of the animals their Christmas presents that day, so we got to watch them open them. And they literally had boxes wrapped up for each of the animals. And in this case, they were for the gorillas.
And they just threw it out there to him and let Casey go to work. He tore open the box and went to town eating his present of grapes, popcorn, nuts, and raisins. It was kind of fascinating to watch since they are so human-like. Kind of freaky actually. :)

Have you noticed a trend in Tyler's face whenever I try to take a group photo????
So after we watched the gorillas, it was time to watch the sea lions open their present so we headed that direction. But not without a meltdown to make things exciting.
But the sea lions were great too! They got fish and squid in their boxes and managed to get the boxes open with their noses. The boys were loving watching it!

Sure do love these boys!
And now for a funny little story and a picture to go with it...

If you look at the picture below, you'll notice Tyler turned toward me, but he is looking up at the lady to the right. I happened to snap this picture right as Tyler turned around and without paying any attention at all, he looked at her and grabbed that map right out of her hand and (rudely) said "give me that map. I want to see it!". And then I realized that he thought she was me. He totally had the wrong mom! So I quickly stepped in and he realized what had happened and he was SOOOOO embarrassed! He stood behind me the rest of the time. He knew he had been rude, for starters, and then he knew he had got the wrong mom! It was hilarious and sad all at the same time. And I couldn't quite decide how to feel that I was mistaken for a woman of Middle Eastern descent who was wearing a head cover, by my own child nonetheless.