12.14.2005

Polar Adventure

PT Barnum said, "There's one born every minute."

Guwi says, "I am a sucker, especially when it comes to creating magical Christmas memories for my children, which will probably only be a memory for me, in which I selectively forget the bickering, tantrums, and general freaking-out-ness that will probably be seen in my family this Friday night, due to overtired-ness, little kid-ness, and being away from home-ness."

A New Christmas Ritual! One that is costly, difficult to get to, and will hopefully not cause me to poke my eyballs out with my car keys!

You guessed it. (And if you did, I'm really impressed, because I don't think the above gave any clue as to what it is I'm babbling about) We're taking the children for a ride on The Polar Express Friday night. To the North Pole. Or, as close to the North Pole as you can get in New Hampshire. Which is about as close as I care to get because it's stinkin' COLD outside. But I digress.

I heard about this last year, when, like many parents who want to have a hand in creating beautiful Christmas memories to last a lifetime yadda yadda (see above) I took my son to see the movie, heard about the train ride in NH, called to inquire, and was promptly laughed off the phone.

"We sold out in September. You can try for next year, though!"

Crabby elves.

So I actually put a reminder in Outlook for August to prompt John and I to discuss it. We did, we entered The Lottery (which always reminds me of Shirley Jackson's short story in which the "winner" of the lottery is allowed to be stoned to death--perhaps if I win an actual lottery with real cash involved, this association will become more positive--for now when I hear the word lottery I duck and run. But I digress...) we are the proud owners of 4 first class tickets, which I was assured we were fortunate to obtain, and we're a-goin' to New Hamster friday night. The tickets were harder to get than U2 tickets anytime since 1984 (yes they recently played locally, no I didn't go, and yes it still smarts and I'm considering therapy. But I--dang I'm doing a lot of digressing. Maybe some Pepto would be in order-- digress...)

Aaaannnnnyway (could that have come soon enough?) we're going. I'm actually very excited about it because we finally got the tickets in the mail today (they were cutting it razor-sharp there--it's in 2 days) and I got choked up reading the description that came with it.

NO! Surely not! I know that's hard to believe, usually I'm so in control of my emotions.

So this guarantees that I will be an emotional wreck Friday night, full of goodness and light, and hopefully the most excellent hot cocoa provided on the train. I think the kids will pull through though, behavior-wise. Hopefully we can get a nap in somewhere, the way up there maybe, and they'll be so excited that CP will be giddy, and Squishy will probably just ask goofy questions over and over ("WASSAT MOMMY? 'SAT A TWAIN? ISSIT? A TWAIN MOMMY?"), and of course, she'll see Stinky Socks (from a distance) so she'll be talking about that for days.

It should be fun. This being the First Annual trek to ride the Express, we'll see if it actually qualifies as a ritual next year if we're not totally scarred.

Or if Stinky Socks isn't. Whichever.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

how funny, Guwi. We took the kids a few years back, and imagine our surprise when the "north pole" was actually the middle of a big field somewhere near Heber City!! Poor Santa, standing out there all alone waving at the passing train like a madman. But the kids loved it, and of course, got their hot chocolate and "first gift of Christmas" bells, which we still have. Now they are 11 and 9, and for some reason, I suspect they just wouldn't get the same thrill as they did 5 years ago!!
Joan