Christmas 2011: The Adventure Begins

Well, it's finally happened. We Labadini's are headed to DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After years and years of scheming, planning and making my mother really angry at me, my Auntie Carol and Uncle John have gifted me (and, you know, the rest of my family) with a week's stay at her time share in Orlando! Best Christmas present ever?

So here's how it went down:

Christmas morning everyone's over our house in Waltham and dinner's not ready yet so we decide to open one present each. Rose, our resident elf, picks random presents and gives them to people. Caitlin got one from Auntie Carol and opened it to find...... flip flops. Nice flip flops from Bloomingdale's... but flip flops nonetheless. Now, I can't vouch for what went through her head at the time, but I know I was thinking, "Um......... wha?" But it's Christmas, so everyone smiled and Caitlin thanked Auntie Carol for the present she wouldn't be able to use for another six months or so.

After dinner we opened more presents, and Auntie Carol handed both Caitlin and I a gift that turned out to be sunglasses. I was psyched because mine had legit just broken and I had said I was going to buy some in the post-Christmas sales, AND these were Coach, and I had never owned nice sunglasses before, opting instead to buy $10 and under glasses at my local Duane (can't) Reade because I inevitably step on them/drop them/crush them with the other contents of my purse. Or, as happened the the 2nd most recent pair, lose them in the Bermuda ocean.

Rose got a camera, which she was shocked by, but none of us were because, well, as the song goes, "On the third day of Christmas, Auntie Carol gave to me really expensive gadgets." ...What, that's not a staple of your holiday playlist?

Then I got an identical box to Cait's first gift and I knew, before opening it, that it was a pair of flip flops. "Um..." I said, not even hiding my apprehension at this point. I looked between Caitlin and Auntie Carol, as if to say, "Does this mean what I think it means?" My mom looked clueless. Auntie Carol handed out her next present to the three of us, and Cait and I started screaming. Because the gifts were clearly wrapped sunblock.

Now, sidebar, you also have to know that at Christmas 2004, my mom gave us each sunblock in wrapping paper before she announced we were going on a cruise. Rose didn't really remember this (being 5) but Cait and I did, so this time we knew what it meant before we even opened it. The two of us started jumping around like idiots while Rose sat there confused and my mom looked very concerned, clearly having no idea what was going on.

Then Rose got a big present, which turned out to be a scrapbook... for Disney World. I FREAKED OUT. CAITLIN FREAKED OUT. My Mom and Rose looked stunned. My mom was handed a gift certificate... for a limo ride. Finally, Rose was handed a big gold box. Inside was a print out of our hotel accommodations in Orlando, FL for Sat, April 14 - Sat, April 21, 2012.

And that, ladies and gents, is how it all began. More soon.