When I was littler, my family went every year to the Minnesota Christmas Revels. When I was slightly bigger, I was in the Revels as a kid--singing and dancing and wearing costumes and running around backstage snitching sugar cubes from the tea table. Then the Minnesota Revels died from lack of funds.

Later this week, I'll see the Boston Revels with my girlfriend and her family, for whom the Revels are also A Tradition. They will be bigger and fancier Revels than I am used to, but they will be Revels. It's been six years, at least.

I can't wait.