The Best Christmas Present

September 28, 2007

I’m always going to remember Christmas Eve of 2001.

My kids, who were 6 and 8 at the time, were sitting by the Christmas tree anxiously waiting to open their presents (our family tradition is to open our Christmas presents at midnight on Dec. 24^th).

Finally, when the clock struck midnight, the boys began ripping the wrapping papers from the gift boxes.

With every box they opened, a look of disappointment appeared on their faces, but they still politely smiled and said “thank you.” First came the clothes from the grandparents, then some $20 bills from their uncles and aunts, and finally a pair of new shoes for each one.

When all the boxes had been opened, they both looked at me and I could see in their eyes that they had expected something else; like a new game console, or something bigger; like a new bicycle.

It was then when I pointed to a little white envelope hanging from the Christmas tree that they had completely ignored. “You have one more,” I said.

They both dashed for it, perhaps expecting to find inside a big fat check or a gift certificate from a toy store. But there was something else inside: “Go to bed now, we are going to Disney in the morning,” they both read aloud from the note they had just pulled out from the envelope. They both screamed, jumped and ran in circles singing “We are going to Disney… we are going to Disney… we are going to Disney!”

Of course, getting them to go to bed was another story. They were so excited with the trip that even after they finally fell asleep around 2:00 AM, five hours later they were jumping in our bed trying to wake us up.

We left the house at around 10:00 AM and we drove for 2 ½ hours to Orlando. My wife and I had been planning to take the kids to Disney for some time, but we wanted to wait until they were a little older so they could enjoy the park and not get tired easily with all the walking you must do when you visit any of those amusement parks.

They spent the whole trip to Orlando asking us questions about the park. They wanted to know if the rides were scary, or whether they could get inside Mickey Mouse’s house or whether we would need to leave the park to have lunch.

We arrived at our hotel around 1:00 PM. It was a cold day even for Florida standards where the temperature in December is usually around 72 degrees. Of course they wanted to go straight to the park, but we had to convince them that we needed to wait until the next day in order to enjoy the park for a full day.

That night while the four or us watched TV in our hotel room, I had the bright idea of telling them about the “It’s a Small World” ride and sing them the song you hear over and over again the entire time you are riding that little boat. Big mistake! They began singing that annoying song immediately. After the third of fourth time they created their own version substituting the original words with phrases like “It’s a small hotel room” or “It’s a small hot dog we ate” and similar childish and equally annoying phrases. This thing went on for a good half hour, until they finally fall asleep. Finally some peace and quiet!

When morning arrived, my kids were again the first ones to wake up. I can’t remember exactly the time they made us leave for the park, but I can tell you that if we would have arrived at the park 5 minutes earlier, we would have seen the night cleaning crew leaving.

It was a wonderful day, full of excitement for them. The kids would make us run from one ride to the next. They wanted to see it all. Even the Haunted House, which we thought would be too much for the younger one, was no big deal and he wanted to ride it again.

They didn’t even complain when we took obligatory pictures of them with the Disney characters. It was all new and exciting for them. That day we left the park after the big parade and the midnight fireworks. We were one of the last people to leave the park.

They saw it all, and I think that day we broke a new record for seeing the entire Disney park in a single day. They were dead tired and fell asleep as soon as they got in the car, but we never heard them say, not even once, “I am tired.”

Once in a while I ask my kids what had been their favorite vacation ever. Since that trip we had taken them to Costa Rica, several Caribbean islands during a cruise, and they also saw the snow for the first time years later while on another Christmas trip to Tennessee. The invariable answer is always “the first time we went to Disney.”

“And why is that vacation so special?” I ask them.

Because it was our best Christmas present ever!

And I believe them.

The TSM Fall Travel Writing Contest has been organised in association with On The Beach Holidays