Frozen on Ice with Thing 1 and Thing 2

kick off the Holiday season my Aunt and I like to do something festive. We've done the Nutcracker a few times, Cinderella, and my personal fave, A Christmas Story: The Musical.
When I had Summer I was thrilled that I would get to dress my little girl up in her Christmas best and we could all go to the shows together.
This was the first year that we were able to take her and we certainly catered to her taste for our Annual Christmas Kickoff.
Frozen on Ice.
When booking the tickets, it appeared that we would need to be multi-millionaires to be able to afford quality tickets. I don't know how anyone can afford to do these things more than once if you're not selling your baby for tickets.
100$ per ticket?
Anna and Elsa had better be singing in my face and lacing up skates for me so I can skate around badly with them.
Luckily, we were able to swindle a Boeing discount out of my Moms husband, Gary, which was super helpful and greatly reduced the price.
We were in and Summer and I were thrilled.
My Mom and Aunt, no so much.
The day of the show I dressed Summer in Elsa blue, which just so happened to be her Easter dress (thanks Jamie!) and even though it had a huge chocolate stain on the front, she managed to be the most adorable picture of perfection I have ever seen.
We made our way over to my Aunt Terry's house to meet up with her and my Mom. Summer and I took a potty break and I told my Mom to make the car seat switch.
"Are you sure you want me to do this?"
"Yeah, why not?"
Mom looked at me aghast at putting in the car seat.
"Just get a jump on it and I'll finish it out when we're done in the bathroom."
Summer and I came back outside to witness my Mom, red in the face, and ready to punch me in my stomach.
"I told myself I would try it three times and then I was done. I'm getting mad over here!"
I swooped in to properly put the seat in and let her silently, and with her mind, throat punch me for asking to put in the seat.
Everybody piled in and we were off.
We parked 20 miles away from Comcast Arena oh wait, Xfinity Arena, so we wouldn't have to pay and stepped out into the glacial evening. Frozen is a fitting title because by the time we got there, I couldn't feel my legs and Summer's face matched her Elsa blue dress.
Walking into the stadium was like walking into a Disney explosion. People from door to door, flashing lights, vendors yelling and children crying.

It was a Frozen Madhouse of Insanity.
I grabbed Summer extra tight in the sea of little Anna's and Elsa's. You could get your face painted for 20 dollars after you waited in line for 20 minutes of course. You could also get a picture with cardboard cutouts of the major players in the movie, for a cool 15 dollars. Frozen is a freaking cash cow.
Unbelievable.
I wanted to get Summer a bag of cotton candy that had an Olaf hat on top of it, I walked over and asked how much.
15 dollars.
I walked away.
I told my Aunt about how ridiculous it was, its not that I couldn't afford it, it was the principal of the matter. People are taking their kids here, a lot of children aren't easily redirected like Summer is. I guess that's what their banking on though, kids flipping out and the parents giving in.
While I went on and on about the unfairness of the situation and how we should stand up and fight the power she went and bought Summer her very first cotton candy, complete with Olaf hat.
Summer was absolutely delighted, the look on her face was all that I needed to drop my stupid hippie stance on Big Disney.

We found our seats, which were pretty killer, and waited until the show started.
Summer looked incredibly overwhelmed by the situation so I had her sit in my lap and was in her ear oooing and aaahing every chance I could.
I don't know what I expected but I didn't expect a song and dance number before the actual show started.
The announcers were skating around and gesticulating in an overly dramatic matter, I was a little thrown at this but then realized that they weren't actually talking, it was all prerecorded, which makes sense, I guess.

They started singing about love between friends and family and princes and princesses, all the characters came out and started impressively skating and singing. That's when shit hit the fan. Timon and Pumba came out and were hilariously skating around on all fours. I looked over at my Mom and Aunt and they completely lost it. Both red faced and panting with laughter, I glared at them and told them to reel it in for the childrens sake. They continued on as if there was no interruption from me.
In all fairness, it was pretty hilarious.

The show finally started and it moved along pretty quickly.
The skaters were excellent and they did their best with what they had.
Summer was still not smiling and just staring straight ahead.
We were three quarters into the first act and Elsa started singing her big number. I had been singing along with all the songs and really, every other voice I was hearing was an adult, so I figured it was cool.

When the pyrotechnics blew and Elsa was hitting all the high notes, me right along with her, Summer turned around, gave me a dirty look, and whispered SHHHH!
What I had mistaken for not having a good time was actually mass concentration.
It was time for intermission and Terry bought some popcorn, which Summer ate all of and my Mom taught her how to eat her cotton candy. Which was the messiest way possible, let it melt on your tongue and then eat it. By act 2, her spirits were up with sugar and salt and she was way more into it.
So, were my mom and Aunt for that matter.
Every time I looked at them they were silently dying of laughter.
I guess the acting was pretty bad.
But the skating was good!
The show ended and we navigated our way out of the chaos and back out into the icy winter wonderland outside.
Summer ran and we sang songs the whole way home.
In my Aunts words, "Im glad we don't do these every year."
Summer had a great time and that's all that really matters.

Cheers.