A Very Frozen Florida Christmas
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Artwork by Casandra Banuelos on Mixkit
There are lots of ways to celebrate Christmas and it’s typically difficult to determine if any one is better than another. There is one exception.
I think we can all agree that when your large family is gathered together for the holidays in Florida, carrying a phone around, blasting Frozen songs, singing along, and requesting that relatives take turns singing to determine whether they are allowed to attend your birthday party in May is hands down the best way to celebrate the season.
So, that’s exactly what I did this year. Or rather, it was what I had intended to do this year, but my 3-year-old beat me to the punch and upstaged me. Again!
Because I am the youngest in my family by a significant margin, my children are the youngest among the cousins. This puts my 3-year-old at an extreme advantage. She holds all the cards and she’s not afraid to play them.
I mean, when it comes to fourth birthday parties, she’s the only game in town. And even if the game is five months away, invites are highly sought after among her cousins in their teens and early twenties.
When you have that kind of power, you have little choice but to wield it. And so she did. All weekend. Or all week. Several days in a row, at least. Days, weeks, and months are really immaterial when you’re caught in the spell of “Let It Go” played on repeat indefinitely.
It all started innocently enough. My daughter quipped that if one of her cousins wanted to come to her birthday, they had to sing “Let It Go.” However, they were not only required to sing it, they were required to sing it “very well.” Everyone agreed this was adorable. But, then the singing challenge continued for minutes, hours, and days.
Everyone was on tenterhooks. Awaiting their turn in the barrel. Understanding that they would only have one chance to impress the sometimes fickle judge and score the coveted birthday party invite. Or maybe they would get two, three, or seventeen chances. Not knowing is sometimes the hardest part.
Fortunately, the judging was relatively lenient. Everyone except one of my sisters managed to pass the test. However, when we returned home at nights and I sketched out a rough ordered list of the cousins, aunts, and uncles ranked by singing talent on the chalkboard, my daughter aggressively erased the names with her hands and insisted that Mommy was the first and only talent.
It seemed a bit harsh, but perhaps it’s for the best. The birthday party was beginning to get a little crowded and we’re not typically equipped to entertain twenty-somethings unless they enjoy bounce houses and piñatas, which come to think of it, they probably do.
But we’ll leave all that for another day or month and finish the story at hand. The holiday concluded the only way it could, really.
My family attempted a White Elephant gift exchange for the first time. Numbers were drawn, gifts were selected and stolen, much fun was had by everyone including one family member dialing in remotely on FaceTime. My daughter drew a low number and opened a rake-themed back scratcher. A few turns later, my sister-in-law unwrapped a Frozen microphone.
The room reacted as you might expect.
In the midst of the commotion, my three-year-old rose to her knees on the floor, craning her neck to get a better look at the just opened gift and remarked, “Actually…I like Frozen.”
A straight-up swap was permitted — back scratcher for Frozen microphone — even though it was technically against the rules. And despite several dares, none of the remaining gift selectors had the guts to steal the microphone.
But can you really blame them?
Everyone had worked so hard to secure their spot at the birthday party, risking it would have been completely foolhardy.
So, we all adjourned, reasonably satisfied. Clutching our Poo-Pourri, Frozen microphones, copper skillets, and gloves you can talk into like phones.
We returned to our homes and to school, college, work, or our chalkboard talent lists, but hopefully all of us had a few free moments to unwind from the holiday high and to practice our high notes. After all, that birthday party in May is right around the corner.
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