After the weekend’s big snowstorm we arrived in snow-covered Boston on Tuesday afternoon (12/23). We were staying with my brother-in-law and his family outside of Boston. The colonial style houses were decorated with lights and wreaths and covered in snow. It was so beautiful! It looked just like those Currier and Ives Christmas cards that one can’t really relate to in California.
It had been over a year since my daughter had seen her cousins, O who is also 6 years old (though a few months younger) and R who is almost 3. They had been very excited about seeing each other again, and got along fabulously right from the start.
SIL served us delicious homemade lasagna, made something else for the kids (O doesn’t eat anything with tomato sauce, with the exception of ketchup), then dashed out to do some errands. She spent most of the 24th doing errands too, and I spent much of the day wrapping presents. My husband played with the kids in the snow while BIL also wrapped presents. Normally, I wouldn’t be wrapping presents on Christmas Eve, but there wasn’t much point in doing it before flying to Boston since everything would either get thrashed in the suitcase, opened by TSA or both.
Christmas festivities started for real with dinner at SIL’s sister’s house. Her mother and brother were also there along with all the kids. I lost track of how many kids there were, but they were all a bundle of energy, and my daughter didn’t hesitate to run around the house screaming with the rest of them. After dinner, we adjourned down the street to SIL’s mother’s house. There were stockings hung in the den and bowls of candy everywhere, but they went pretty much unnoticed since the entire living room was literally knee deep in presents. And then the feeding frenzy began. Imagine piranhas in a horror movie, but with paper instead of blood. I was really impressed by the
generosity of SIL’s family. They included my daughter in everything even though they hardly knew her, and they gave her quite a lot of presents—not as many as the other kids, naturally, but way more than I would ever imagine. Then there was dessert: chocolate cheesecake, yule log, pecan bars, raspberry bars, and some sort of white cake (I showed some restraint and didn’t try that one). The evening ended with the kids putting on a song and dance show. It was around midnight by the time we got home.
Despite it being Christmas Eve, the kids were sufficiently exhausted that there was no problem getting them to bed. Unfortunately we adults were also pretty exhausted, but we got a second wind as we played Santa, bringing out the presents and putting them under the tree. Since they had a train under the tree, my husband built tunnels with the presents. We also assembled a workbench for R and a dollhouse for O. Needless to say there was way more than would fit under the tree. It was 3 AM before we finally got to bed.
My daughter was the first to wake up at 7:30. I was relieved that we got to sleep that long. She woke the adults up, and then we let her wake up her cousins. It took all morning to open all those presents, and we spent the rest of the day trying them out. It was fun, but in the back of my mind, I was overwhelmed by all the stuff. How on earth would we get all this home? Our suitcases were already maxed out, and the weight and volume of the Christmas presents we received far exceeded that of what we gave.The next day, SIL and I took the kids to Disney on Ice: Mickey’s Magical Journey. I’d seen Icecapades as a kid, but this was so much more. The amount of marketing was staggering. Besides the normal fast food places that filled the sports arena, there were huge booths set up with Disney products: dolls, stuffed animals, trinkets and battery operated gadgets beyond descriptions, all for each of the many Disney princesses and characters. We dragged the kids past these and found our seats only to have vendors walk by with more stuff. I considered getting the kids some cotton candy until I heard that they charged $10 for it. The kids loved the show, but between getting ready and the traffic leaving the show, it took all day.
The next few days were spent taking it easy and enjoying each other’s company and all the presents. The kids watched a lot of the Disney channel, and I became aware that every program had its spin-off products. My daughter had never even seen High School Musical, but she saw the commercials for the products and was thrilled to get some of it. Worst had to be all the Hannah Montana stuff—everything from socks and shoes to dolls and makeup. One would think that Hannah Montana was running for president. For that matter, one probably could run a presidential campaign with the revenue from that product line alone.
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