I Heard the Christmas Bells...er, Roars!

The Heard Museum did a special "Holidays at the Heard" tonight, where they decorated the Dinosaurs Live! trail with Christmas lights and decor. All of the dinosaurs had on festive hats, wreaths, and lights to get everyone in the holiday mood. It was neat to walk through the woods with only Christmas lights to guide your trail. And I dare say the dinosaurs looked less menacing coming out of the shadows when they were doing so wearing Santa hats.

We decided to go with Charlotte and her family, which was great except for the fact that Charlotte was overly excited about the lights, the dinosaurs, and the general feel of Christmas in the air (God forbid). I say this was unfortunate, because for some reason it seemed to irk Troy to no end, and he couldn't stop whining to me about it. After the third time, I'd had enough, and his attitude ruined the entire night for me. What made it worse was the fact that my wife, as usual, was off conversing with Charlotte's mom and dad, leaving me to deal with Troy's sourness all by myself. And the cherry on the top was that it was cold and windy outside, and I was ill-prepared for the weather. So, I was already a bit miserable to start.

And once I got into a bad mood, everything Troy said and did irritated me. At one point, I even walked away and left him with my wife, because I was so furious. Of course, once I was out of the picture, Troy suddenly was in a great mood and thoroughly enjoyed dancing with my wife to Christmas music and playing with Charlotte in the leaves. So, I was left fuming on my own, while everyone else had a wonderful time.

We ended the trek through the woods with hot chocolate, which soothed my bitterness somewhat. It also helped that Charlotte's dad, perhaps sensing my irritation, came over and told me that he'd been having a rough week with Charlotte too. It helped, but the damage was done, and I missed the enjoyment of the entire experience. Because Troy was upset that someone else had joy, he decided to rob me of mine.