This year has been… different.
I know I like to talk about how it’s a lost year, an awful year, the worst year ever.. but it’s not that simple. This year has given us a lot of great things too. (Did everyone see our local fame on The Great Christmas Light Fight??) And while yes, a lot of things aren’t how I had planned, some things actually are.
Last year we had bought tickets to go to Zoo Lights at our local zoo. It’s not the big Boston zoo, but a smaller one that I’d never been to (or really wanted to - zoos aren’t my thing). But at Christmas it puts on a big display that always looked cool to me. It’s on my daily commute (back when I actually used to commute) so I’d drive by it every night and was impressed at the lights. I couldn’t wait until I had an excuse to go.
So last year we bought tickets for G’s birthday. We figured it would be cool and something special to celebrate the day. Turns out in a normal year there is a lot going on in December, especially when you add in a birthday. Between all the Christmas parties and get togethers, we were exhausted. And then there was a party for G at daycare that we didn’t want to miss, which interfered with our tickets for the zoo, so we ended up not doing the Zoo Lights at all.
And then this year happened. And suddenly we’re all begging for things to do. So when tickets went on sale, I grabbed them up and put it on the calendar for a random Monday. It made me feel good knowing that we could still do one normal thing. I’ll be honest, though, when Tom mentioned on Sunday that we were scheduled for the next day, I debated cancelling. Turns out it doesn’t matter how busy you are, we’re always exhausted in December.
Instead we made plans, figured out logistics and made it work. We were all bundled in the car and trying to explain to E and G what we were going to do, when E kept asking “But WHY are we going there?” I don’t know kid, because it’s fun? Maybe? Because we need some happiness? Maybe it’s the start of your favorite Christmas tradition? Or maybe it’s your worst nightmare. We won’t know until we get there!
I really didn’t know what to expect, and while thinking about how Christmas-like it would be, I had kind of forgotten that there would be animals there too. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
We donned our masks, showed our tickets, and were the third group through the gates. It was sort of raining, but we just went with it. I’ll admit to being a bit overwhelmed at the beginning, so we just started walking. We skipped the flamingo enclosure because it seemed a bit much to throw the kids at first thing, which was good because no one else did. We were alone for most of our walk. The zoo has also made this a one way path that you follow, which is great for avoiding people, but not so great if you want to skip anything or leave early (which was my original plan if things fell apart).
E was quiet almost the entire time. It’s always hard to tell if he’s having fun, which is exactly what I deserve because I was the same as a child. I always remember adults asking me if I was okay or having fun and I never understood why. So I just trust that if he’s not crying, he’s doing okay. G was apparently chatting up a storm, but Tom was carrying him so I missed most of that.
It was cold so we went quick, since I knew they wouldn’t hold up for very long. I’ve learned with them that more isn’t always better. 5 minutes of lights is fun, but 50 minutes of lights isn’t 10 times as much fun, so we didn’t push it. Mostly we wandered and looked at whatever lights caught our attention, with a few random animals thrown in. Everything from goats to reindeer to snow leopards (okay even I was a bit surprised to see those up close). Most everything was “cat” to G though, which is fine by me. I’ll listen to him meow at animals all day.
I think we all had fun? At least by the time we’d gotten home and warmed up everyone seemed to be glad we did it. It was nice feeling like we were doing something festive this year. Only time will tell if it’s something they forget we ever did, or if it sticks in their memory forever - you know, like that one time where we drove in the minivan for 20 minutes with Memaw and Pepaw that E tells me about EVERY DAY?
