Dadcation
For 2021’s final month, we started by taking the trip to Disneyland planned for May 2020; we learned to ride (and subsequently bought) a motorcycle; we returned to Cheaha State Park with my friends from childhood and their families; we attended a few holiday parties (better than attending zero holiday parties, a la 2020); we visited my folks at Lake Guntersville, and we experienced New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street. Here are its 31 seconds: All done, 2021. You were not as we hoped.
Ever since watching “Miracle on 34th Street” as a child, I’ve wondered what it’d be like to experience New York City at Christmas. Seeing Buddy the Elf and Kevin McAllister do it in 2003 and 1992 (respectively) only heightened such desire, so when I learned there was a workers’ comp law seminar at The London hotel on West 54th street December 16-17, I signed up and bought 5 plane tickets. Talking to a friend’s airline pilot husband at a holiday party the week before we left and hearing,…
I don’t normally take the entire day off on Christmas Eve, but I decided to this year, and we visited the new ice skating arena that opened a couple miles from our house the previous weekend. I hadn’t skated in years, and the 3 children had never even attempted it. When we walked onto the ice, all 3 clutched the railing surrounding the rink and slowly shuffled along, fearing falling down. The rink has penalty boxes on both sides, so there was frequent quitting to sit on the…