We finally wound up our Christmas celebrations over the weekend with the Brehmers--that would be my family. We may not get as loud and obnoxious as the Brogan clan does, but we hold our own in the crazy department.
A few years ago, my mom decided that holiday dinners were more than she wanted to deal with, and really, who can blame her? It’s a lot of work! So we have been experimenting with alternative celebration methods over the past few years.
On the years that my family gets the “off” day for celebrations, we have gone out to eat and then done an activity like bowling, one year we got family pictures taken and then went out to eat, and one year we went out to eat and then gathered back at mom’s for snacks and games. Do you see the theme here?
On the years that my family gets the actual holiday, we a lot of times just have potluck at mom’s with games and goodies, which is always a solid celebration plan.
This year, we decided to do it up big and go to the Water Park of America in Bloomington and stay overnight at the attached Radisson Hotel. Because check in wasn’t until 4 p.m., we decided to meet at Mall of America to kill some time. We fueled up with lunch at Bubba Gump’s and then sort of fractured off into small shopping parties. Captain and I veered off by ourselves to just wander and people watch. We did check out a few of the stores, but really not many.
Close to the time we were to head back to meet the rest of the crew, we ran across Young Man, Mama Bear, Cubby, and Princess, so we wandered back to the designated meeting area with them. Cubby had had ENOUGH by this point, so we decided to head to the hotel.
Being a farm girl and using directions like “turn right at the Old Blatty place…,” I find it hard to travel in the cities. We walked out of the Mall toward our car and I could see the hotel from where I was. Do you suppose I could figure out how to get there? Not a chance. After a couple of wrong turns and much colorful language, I fired up the GPS on my phone and followed the snotty little lady in the plastic box. I hate it that she is always right!
So we all got checked in and up to our rooms. The hotel staff was nice enough to put the three rooms in a cluster together so we wouldn’t have to run up and down the hall to visit each other.
We did our gift exchange first, did some chatting/catching up, and then it was off to the water park. Cubby had the absolute cutest little swim dress on, and she knew she was gorgeous!
I was absolutely flabbergasted at the sheer number of people in this water park! I’ve never been to an actual water park before, so I had no idea what the protocol or etiquette was, but apparently is was “grab a tube and plop your butt into it.” That was for the Lazy River ride.
I don’t think anyone else but me got the “lazy” part of the memo...I got lapped by kids with their feet through the hole and their arms over the top of the tube running through the water. How is that “lazy,” I ask you?! I meandered my way along the entire course, ending up under every water fall, and bonking my head on the rock wall a couple of times.
When I had made a complete lap, I looked up to see Captain who had apparently not gotten a tube yet, so I told him to meet me at the next ladder/handrail spot a few yards down. I got that far, grabbed his hand to stop...and then had no idea how to get out of the tube.
I floundered around trying to be graceful about it and finally said “what the hell” and just capsized the tube and face planted in the water. I was kind of glad to get out of that spot, actually!
I wandered back to where Mama Bear, Princess, and Cubby were playing in the kiddie pool area. Cubby’s idea of playing was sitting on her butt in the water and slapping the water with her hands. Hey, whatever floats your boat, kid!
I opted out of the water games at that point, and I went with my mom to find towels and do some more people watching. Mama Bear and Princess wanted to do a water slide on a two-person tube, so I took over Cubby-watching for a bit and then decided to head back up to the room with Mom and Cubby since they were both pretty wiped out.
Young Man was already in the room. I felt really bad for him not being able to partake in the water fun with his cast, but he was an extremely good sport about it all. While we waited for the rest of the crew to trickle back from the water part, Young Man gave Cubby a bath and got her in her PJs...also adorable, by the way.
After everyone had gotten back up to the rooms, we ordered pizza, ate snacks, and gabbed and gabbed and gabbed. Cubby was the first one to fall asleep, but the rest of us weren’t far behind her!
I never sleep well in hotel rooms, so when I heard Captain stirring around at 5:30, I decided to quit fighting it and got up. Young Man was also awake so we visited amongst ourselves while the girls slept. Captain and Young Man made a coffee/snack run down to the hotel restaurant so Cubby could have her daily banana. Pretty soon we heard the water pumps fire up in the water park (we had a balcony overlooking the water park, so we could see what was going on down there), and then we saw the lights start coming on so it was “let’s get our suits on and get back down there.”
Captain and the girls were going to do this multi-person tube water slide ride from...like...ten stories up in the air. Mama Bear asked me “Are you sure you’re okay watching Cubby while I do that?” Totally okay, I am NOT going ten stories up to ride a tube! Darn fear of heights, anyway!
So I staked out a chair with my mom at the exit point of that ride and we waited for them to come flying out. When they did, it looked so fun to me that I handed Cubby to Captain and went with my girls, my niece, and my sister-in-law. The heights thing wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, so that was good.
When it was our turn to load into the tube, we were pretty well crammed in there and before I could find something to grab onto...off we went. Luckily I found the strap to hang on to because it was a WILD ride! At one point after a particularly sharp curve, I caught air. And then we were at the bottom and up the steps out of the water...where I got hit with a vertigo attack. That was literally the worst part of the ride and enough to convince me I was done with that business.
Me, Mom, and Cubby watched people coming down that particular ride for awhile until we realized that our crew was on the tube ride on the other side of the park, so we meandered over that way and watched a few rounds of them doing that ride.
Captain asked me if I would please go down one of the smaller/shorter water slides on a two-person tube with him. Okay, I’ll give that a whirl and I must say that was much better than the big one. Captain even got the giggles about ⅓ of the way into it and laughed the whole way down.
By now it was late enough in the day that it was going to be nip and tuck to get packed up and checked out on time, but we made it...with 1-½ minutes to spare. We had decided on Perkins to fuel up for the rest of the day. After the meal, Young Man and Mama Bear decided that Cubby needed to be back in her own bed for a nap, they headed home with Princess.
The rest of us reconvened at Ikea. I have never been there before and I must say it is...overwhelming is the word that comes to mind! Baby Brother needed a few things but the rest of us were just browsing as we went through the store.
By the time we all parted ways at the Ikea exit, I think everyone was worn out...but in a good “we had a blast” kind of way. We had enough fun during the weekend that plans were begun to do it again next year!
We were able to spread our Christmas celebrations out over three separate weekends this year instead of cramming everything into three days, and I kind of liked it that way!
As we close out the old and ring in the new, I pray that you have love, faith, and blessings in your life for the coming year!
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