Christmas is awesome. There's nothing about it that sucks, except the increase of crazy people you have to come in contact with. The malls, tree farms, live nativity scenes, churches, performances of the Nutcracker are just filled with people you don't normally see.
We went to Christmas Storybook Land in Albany this weekend, after years of hearing how great it is. It's good, but not great. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the immense cost, time, and effort that goes into making something like Storybook Land come to fruition. I also appreciate that it is free, allowing families that may be financially strapped to enjoy some Christmas cheer. Kids love it too, because kids don't care if something that was old thirty years ago is being trotted out. The place pretty much reminded me of a 1950's Christmas time capsule, with its dollhouses, model train displays and winter scenes of stories like Johnny Appleseed and other stories that kids today probably haven't heard or know of. I found it amusing that most of the scenes had placards explaining what each scene was, such as "Jack and Jill" which featured two dolls that didn't really look as if they'd "fallen down." It looked more like they'd gone the Romeo and Juliet route in some sort of suicide pact and drank arsenic on the side of a hill. The point was that this scene NEEDED a placard or very few people (myself included) would've had a hard time figuring out what exactly was being portrayed. Also interesting was that the "Spongebob Squarepants" scene had no placard, because every kid knows exactly who a giant sponge wearing underwear is. Other things irritated me, like the misspelling of some of the placards. I heard the tale of Hansel and Gretel growing up, but apparently at Christmas Storybook Land, Hansel has taken up with Gretel's twin sister "Gretal." Also, the 101 Dalmations make an appearance for the first time ever. I'm just trying to figure out how 18,000 people travel through this thing every year, and nobody has picked up on this yet. Or maybe they have, and like me don't want to point out to the people who bust their ass every year to set this thing up that they need spell checker. No, we'd rather blog about their mis-adventures. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get coal this year in my stocking for writing this.
Santa was there too, which is always fun for the kids. The line you have to wait in to see him, however, is not fun for the parents. We were behind a family in which the parents were younger than us, but there were at least four kids hovering around. It was hard to tell, because they never sat still, except for the two in the strollers. There was another lady there, and I assume one or more of the kids could've been hers, but still the kids to adult ratio was alarming given the age of the parents. The "father" had a dorky fedora on and was sporting a shaved head, with the exception of a closely cropped mohawk that for whatever reason was longer in the back. Not mullet length, but long enough that he had some sort of product in it. The mom laughed at everything he said, which I suppose was a good sign that they still enjoyed each others company. He was talking loudly about how he saw so and so at WalMart with her baby, and said "Hey, there's the little bastard!" to the shock of everyone around. He said this proudly, as if using the word "bastard" in its literal meaning in public was the equivalent of catching a mugger on the sidewalk. The parents then proceeded to play kissy face and engage in some highly inappropriate PDA. Afterwards, Rachel would remark "I wonder where people like that work, because I hope I never have to rely on them for service."
Finally, it was our turn to see Santa. Jonah walked right up and hopped up on his lap. Santa asked Jonah what he wanted, and Jonah said "A talking Woody and a Mickey Mouse game," Which is Jonah code for a pull-string Woody doll from Toy Story 3 and the Wii game Epic Mickey. Santa clearly had no clue what Jonah was talking about, but understood "Mickey Mouse" and was able to ask a few friendly follow-up questions before sending Jonah on to Mrs. Claus for a candy cane. Jonah got his candy cane, but he kept looking back at Santa with a confused look. I asked him what was wrong, and Jonah said "He didn't give me my presents!" This led to a very long conversation about how Santa doesn't have the presents on him right now, and he has to go back to the North Pole to get them before bringing them on Christmas Eve. Jonah is having a hard time understanding the difference between "Christmas time" and the actual day.
