The first departure from tradition: we did not watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. Nor Scrooge (the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol). Nor Emmett Otter; the truth is we just ran out of time to have everyone sit down and put in a DVD and insist to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger's father that yes, it's in the wrong aspect ratio and yes, we can so tell. We just ran out of time, thanks in part to how late gift-opening ran, and how bunnyhugger's walk with the dog took longer than she (or the dog) expected. The dog wanted to stop and spend a great deal of time nose-perusing everything and acted betrayed when tugged to move along.
And, then, dinner took longer to prepare than bunnyhugger's brother expected. He had hoped to break from tradition by making something nice and simple, a couple trays of enchiladas, and so he did. And yet whatever it is that makes making dinner complicated still hit, and between the enchiladas, and the salsa-not-technically-speaking-verde and the corn and refried beans and all dinner kept moving later and later. Since bunnyhugger and I couldn't do anything to help we sat in the living room while How The Grinch Stole Christmas did its NBC(?) showing for the year. bunnyhugger's father asked, given how much we discussed the small details of it, if we had seen it before and, well, yes. bunnyhugger thinks we'd even had this conversation about ``have you seen The Grinch before?'' before. I'm not sure but it would fit.
Afterward the Jim Carrey Grinch movie came on and I'd rather not watch that. But since bunnyhugger's father's alternative was to put on Loud MSNBC --- he couldn't be coaxed into putting on the Lions game --- I encouraged him to go back to the Jim Carrey Grinch, and I forget what did happen. (This was also a chance for one of my rare viewings of Wheel of Fortune where I learned there's some category where a bunch of words are arranged crossword-puzzle-style and I do not approve.)
What I'm getting at is that by the time we were done eating, and then having dessert, it was way too late for me to join in any DVD-watching or game-playing. For you see Friday was a regular work day for me; I hadn't taken the day off and I had to be at my computer at 8 am. So around 10 I had to start gathering stuff up to bring it all home.
bunnyhugger did not, however. We had gone down in separate cars, just for the contingency that she would stay an extra night and get some more time with her brother and his partner, and maybe spend the next day with her parents. That worked out pretty well, for her at least --- they were all playing the board game Parks when I left --- and maybe we'll consider this plan in future years, if I have the dumbness not to take time off. It won't come up again before 2028, possibly 2029 depending how the state assigns the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day holidays, anyway.
So I gathered up the gifts I'd received, my duffel bag, the gift-wrapping stuff bunnyhugger no longer needed, the rabbit, the rabbit's food, and some cookies bunnyhugger's mother would not let me leave the house without, and somehow managed to lose one of my gloves. They found it minutes after I left, too late for me to recover. But I got home and got to bed and was set for a quiet and dark morning. Boxing Day started out raining-to-freezing-rain and it was not good driving weather in the least. bunnyhugger's brother and his partner would end up having to stop partway through their drive home to upstate New York. bunnyhugger would stay until not-quite-sunset before being sent home. She was sent with a great many cookies and there would be more to come, so at least that was getting back to tradition.
I'm going to give you something of the experience of being near The Ride To Happiness, since I of course am not going to take photos on a roller coaster. C'mon. I'm not daft.
At the station, the circular video screen up top gives a long speech (in English) about how the elements were come together to produce this experience and your life would now be divided into the times before you were on this ride and after. It's a bit heady.
And here's the station, which is pretty normal if you just look at the air gates and the train's position. The station itself is awfully attractive, though.
View out the station at a hill with giant metal butterfly sculptures.
And, the exit stairwell. Behind you can see a boat coming out of the tower.
Here's the walkway, arguably the best-decorated exit queue we've been in.
Here's where the exit path rejoins the ride's approach. If you know where to look you can spot the globe thingy from yesterday.
Trivia: In 2000, P F Chang's became the first nationwide American chain restaurant to use sriracha as an ingredient in sauces and dips. Source: Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine, Sarah Lohman. However, it was Applebee's that first gave it menu placement.
Currently Reading: A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II, Maury Klein.
