The Escape Room

On so many levels, the 2018 Grandma Rita Escape Room was the best idea I ever had.

For one thing, I am a terrible Christmas gift-giver.  Honestly…the year Ross was 9, Santa brought him a brown parka from Sears. Ugh. I just suck at it…

Another thing is that, like many kids today, Lilly and Warren already have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF. Too many toys, too many clothes, too much of everything. There is no way they can play with the toys they already own…

But, mostly, the reason for the Grandma Escape Room was because I want Christmas Eve at my house to be something special. And they already spend a lot of time here – so the challenge was to make it an entirely different experience.

After Thanksgiving, my friend Linda told me about going to an Escape Room with their daughter's family – and it was like a bell went off in my head.

To help figure it out, I booked a real Escape Room adventure for us in Davenport. Uncle Ross went with us – and, well –IT WAS AMAZING. I knew I couldn’t come close to their professional set-up. But, hey – Lilly and Warren are 9 and 5 years old….and this Grandma’s got some game…

However – there are a LOT OF MOVING PARTS. Youza. I had no idea how much work this was gonna be…and if I had, I NEVER would have gone down this road. I am not kidding.  I had to clear the room of SO MUCH CLUTTER…things that weren’t involved with the GAME. I told myself that Lilly will be moving into this room after the holidays – so it’s high time I went through some of this stuff anyway – right?

Then, I did internet research for Escape Room ideas.  As it turns out, I’m a little ahead of the curve…so there wasn’t much help there.

I went shopping…in my basement, at the Goodwill store…for gadgets or games, small prizes that could be hidden inside cases, locked away in a safe that they had to open…

HEY – Harbor Freight was a huge score!! A bicycle lock, a keyed padlock, and a 3-combination locker lock….AND a couple of head lamp flashlights ($2.99 each!)…

After two weeks, I had a huge box of random junk….and a very long list of ideas and possible activities. But, I was stuck on how the REAL Escape Room worked…and my ideas all felt kind of less-than…

I spent many days working on the room...and then I'd lay in bed for hours every night, with all the different ideas banging around in my head keeping me awake.  By Christmas Eve,  I had decorated the room…and cleared out most of the drawers and shelves in the room.  I'd planned most of the "gifts" or "prizes" they would find, and five or six activities were plotted out…

But by the afternoon of Christmas Eve…it felt like NOTHING WAS COMING TOGETHER.  Then, my sister Deena called…just to chat…and I said…I NEED HELP..!!

After she came, we walked through several of the scenarios…IT ALL STARTED TO COME TOGETHER in my head.  I knew there were three parts to the room.  The first would be figuring out the Decoder ring…which would have their “mission”…which would be a flashlight scavenger hunt…which would lead them to their first “key”…

OH, YEAH – THIS IS GONNA WORK…!!

Here’s another thing.  You know I am a BIG FAN of surprise adventures!  But, sometimes, the anticipation of an event brings just as much joy.  So, the week before Christmas, I told Lilly I was making an Escape Room for Christmas Eve…but she was not to tell her parents about it.  And SHE LOVED keeping the secret…she was SO excited about the Escape Room.

I’d love to tell you that everything went perfectly.  They had a Walkie-Talkie and so did I.  I sat just outside of the room…and could give them clues if they were stumped.  Elliott and Emily went into the dark escape room with Lilly and Warren (who were wearing headlamps) – and, after a bit of a search -- they found their first clues and, working together, found and created the “Decoder ring”…which was the key to their mission.

 

After their successful flashlight scavenger hunt, they moved on to the GAME DRAWER…and the four of them laughed and played games...Emily and Elliott would be amazed at how good Lilly is at Banagrams...and Warren might kick their ass in a rousing game of Old Maid...

But, alas, they never got that far. The parents only lasted about 20 minutes.  Although Lilly guessed how the Decoder ring was supposed to work…nobody would listen to her…they dropped the piece of paper which had the CLUE to the combination lock…. and they couldn’t move forward until they figured that out…

So they never got to Stage Two…MUCH LESS THE SPEED ROUND of Minute-to-win-it activities (in a locked duffel)…with MAJOR PRIZES at the end!!

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I went into the room,  turned on the lights and gathered up the unopened packages so we could take them downstairs for a conventional gift-opening.  The big hit of the night was the unveiling of Warren’s LEGO table…

Hey—you might be thinking Grandma Rita’s Escape Room was a colossal failure…maybe even THE WORST IDEA I EVER HAD.  All that work...hundreds of trips up and down those stairs...A WHOLE LOT OF WORK for nothing…

But here’s the thing.

The next morning, at their Christmas Breakfast, Lilly and Warren COULD NOT STOP TALKING about my Escape Room.  Their other Grandparents were blown away!!  SO WAS I!!  They were reliving it as though it was the most exciting thing EVER!!  They couldn’t stop smiling…and talking…about their headlamp flashlights, the Decoder ring, the scavenger hunt, the keys and the locks…

Holy Cow!!  If I hadn’t been there myself (to experience the dismal failure of the thing) – I woulda thought it was a RIP ROARING SUCCESS.

Then it hit me.

IT REALLY WAS.  Because the only thing that matters is their memory of it…and, in this life, the truth is, many, many things REMEMBER better than they LIVED…

I am soooo happy....!!