Yesterday, the grandkids and I spent the day together for their annual tree decorating visit, which concluded with an evening trip to the Cape Codder hotel in Hyannis, a ritual we’ve observed for the last 3 years.
The Cape Codder is the top family hotel in this area, mostly because of their famous Wave Pool, which is completely unique and designed for pre-teen kids. It’s a fairly shallow pool by most hotel standards, and slopes like a beach, with a mechanism that creates periodic small waves. The pool also has a couple of slides, and my oldest grandson especially loves those.
Anyway, we didn’t get to use the pool last night, but we thoroughly enjoyed all of the activities in the hotel’s enormous central courtyard. These include a spectacular display of Christmas lights, animated miniature snowmen, a little Santa’s village, a playground, and best of all, a bonfire.
I’m not sure where the reference comes from, but Bob, the 10 year old ironist, looked forward to seeing the “angry mob of Christmas carolers”, and was ecstatic when, on entering the courtyard, he heard the voices of these cheerful-looking young people in Victorian garb.
We brought our own marshmallows and roasting sticks, and when they were done eating, the kids had a great time on the playground until it was time to leave.
At the start of the day, we had lunch at Subway, including Superman ice cream from their not-quite-closed-for-the-season ice cream shop.
We visited the first annual open house at the National Marine Life Center, where they also picked out their Christmas presents, did crafts, and enjoyed the exhibits, including one that showed how long various forms of beach detritus requires to decompose (up to a million years).
During our visit, we bought a few raffle tickets, and the kids selected which prize(s) they’d like to win.
On the way back to the house, we stopped in at a local supermarket to get a few odds and ends, and they were conducting a fund raiser – get your photo taken with Santa for a donation.
Bob had $1 from a scratch ticket win and offered it to the “elf”, so we got a very cute photo of the 3 kids with Santa (one of 3 or 4 we saw yesterday).
At the house, we baked cookies and a cake (with homemade icing), drank hot chocolate and decorated the tree. We had a quick supper, then off to the Cape Codder.
Bob got an “A+” for absolutely flawless behavior. James, who was hungry and cranky until the Subway stop, started with a “D” but was reasonably good afterwards.
Emme gave me a beautiful Christmas gift she’d made herself, an exquisite little box shaped like a tiny Japanese shoe.
On returning to #11, Peter informed us that the NMLC had left a message that Emme won one of the raffle prizes!
The weather cooperated the whole time, and all in all, a very nice day, enjoyed by all.