We started the month with our book tradition. I actually made it in time for December 1st this year. Each year, I wrap up all of the Christmas books (we probably have 30) and let the kids open one book each night throughout the month and we read it at bedtime. We always end up adding one new book to the collection, which they typically open on the last night, but this year, Stella received 2 Christmas books for her birthday, so we didn't buy any new ones!
This year, we found giant gingerbread men and a more traditional hexenhaus at Trader Joes. I explained to the girls that "hexenhaus" means "witch's house" in German and we concluded that the little people just had to be Hansel and Gretel. After doing a little research, it turns out we were correct! It is a tradition in Germany that every family constructs a Hexenhaus out of gingerbread and they leave it on the table until Christmas. Friends and family break off little pieces over the course of the month and the house gradually crumbles. I love it! Next year, we are going to make it from scratch...
Papa and Stella worked hard at their gingerbread man and Stella worked especially hard doing quality control on all of the decorating candies.
Stella and I baked some coconut butterscotch cookies for a cookie exchange.
While we were decorating the tree, I found all of Grandma Bush's handmade Polish ornaments. We haven't displayed these since the girls were born because they are a little on the delicate side. I decided to hand them on a metal tree out of reach. They are very sparkly and tempting!
Another Christmas tradition that we have has to do with getting the kids ornaments! Every year we buy them fair trade ornaments from Ten Thousand Villages. We try to get something that represents what they are into for that year. We usually take them the day after Christmas to pick out another ornament for themselves. I'm starting to forget which ornaments belong to each of the kids, so I am going to start taking photos of them so I can document it ;)
This year, Stella got the button man from India. Buttons (Skeeleely buttons) have been her fascination for awhile now, so really, there couldn't have been a better ornament for her!
Eva's ornament was the dog from Kenya. She loves all animals - real, stuffed, out of metal - she doesn't discriminate.
Mickey's ornament was a guitar from Kenya. He's really into music, like most teenage boys!
We decided to do things a little differently this year. Instead of adding to the clutter of our house with an overabundance of presents, we opted for an experiential gift - a trip to Disney. The girls were so sweet when they went to visit Santa. We waited in line and we listened to children rambling off their lists to Santa. Eva and Stella waited patiently and when it was their turn, Eva simply asked for a Lotso Huggin' Bear and Stella said she really would love some cotton candy.
On Christmas morning, the kids rummaged through their stockings and opened their gifts - a box or two from Grandma and Grandpa Ward, a present each from Santa, and their annual ornaments. They finished in under 10 minutes and cleaned up quickly. They were completely happy with their new loot and were ready for breakfast. We then pulled out 'the last box.' We let Stella open the last box since she is the youngest. Inside the giant box was a large Mickey Mouse mylar balloon:
It rose to the ceiling and at the bottom of the string hung the first clue. Since they had absolutely no clue what was in store for them, I thought a scavenger hunt would be fun. The first clue read:
Surprise it's time to play a game!
A scavenger hunt will help you find
a special gift that is one of a kind!
The Prince was in love, he knew not with who,
but after the ball, she lost her ____ (shoe)
Stella's shoes were placed neatly by the front door. The kids ran to the door, looked in her shoe and found the second clue which read:
Belle is loved for her kindness and looks,
but she would rather spend time reading her ____ (books)
They ran to the bookshelves where a clue was sticking out. It read:
Snow White and her prince are off to the chapel,
now that she's recovered from the poisoned ____ (apple)
They ran to the kitchen to find the next clue which read:
Sleeping Beauty had to rest her head,
where else would she do this, but a ______(bed)
Upstairs they went, to the girls' room. Stella's bed was holding the next clue:
Rub a dub dub,
you might find water-loving Ariel in the _______(tub)
The bathtub was the only place I could think of to really hide all the loot. I went to the dollar store, which is riddled with Disney paraphernalia costing only $1 ;) I bought 3 posters and enough Disney activities to keep the kids completely happy and occupied for the 10 hour drive.
They ran to the bathroom, moved the shower curtain to find the loot + the final clue. It read:
now pack your bags, it's time to go! In about 10 hours, we'll be in Orlando! With mickey and minnie, and the rest of the crew, Im sure you will meet a princess or two! Merry Christmas, we're going to Disney!
The tub also had a bag from the Disney store where I had purchased tshirts and sweatshirts for them to quickly throw on and stainless steel water bottles to take along on the trip. After all, we wanted to get on the road as early as possible!
They threw on their new clothes, thumbed through all of the Disney activities and ran out to have breakfast. Todd made homemade cinnamon rolls the night before and had stuck them in the oven before the kids had started opening their presents. All bags were packed, so we quickly finished getting ready and hit the road!
The Dollar Store literally had everything Disney - crayons, colored pencils, stamp sets, velvet coloring sheets, card games, flash cards, coloring books, window clings and more. I was able to buy 15 activities for each girl for $30. That's a steal and there was no fighting!
I bought princess kazoos from the party store. That was awesome. Todd looked at me like I was crazy for giving them kazoos in the car, but they had a blast with them and the kazoos weren't annoying at all. They actually sounded pretty sweet!
The kids were troopers. I had packed a huge back of snacks and Todd made some sandwiches to take along. I think we only stopped twice. Clearly they were anxious to get there! We actually made it in time to check into our hotel and go out for dinner!
We stayed at the Yacht Club, which was perfect. Upon arrival, they had a free room upgrade ready for us so we had a fantastic water view:
The Yacht Club is within walking distance to Epcot, a short bus ride to the Magic Kingdom and a quick ferry ride to Hollywood Studios.
Cutest thing ever happened on our way to dinner the first night. We decided to keep it simple since we had been driving all day, so we walked to the Boardwalk. On our way back, I saw a ferry and pointed it out to Eva. She was so excited and was looking in every direction frantically when I realized she was actually looking for a fairy :) I love the magic of Disney.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early so we could go to the Magic Kingdom. We jumped on a bus right in front of the hotel with no wait and off we went!
The first day was pretty darn cold. This was both good and bad. The bad part is pretty obvious - it was COLD and we weren't quite prepared for it. We brought lots of layers, but that wasn't enough. We ended up buying hats and mittens for the girls. That helped a little. The good part about the cold weather was that I guess it may have deterred a few people from visiting the park. We were able to go on so many rides with very little waiting. Perfect for our first day!
We started out at the Haunted Mansion. This was always a favorite of mine and I should have known better than to take Eva on it. The poor baby buried her head in my lap the entire time with her hands covering her eyes. We finally got to a part that I thought she would find cute and I convinced her to look when of course, something scary jumped out right in front of us. Oops. The best part was that the ride stopped for some reason and we were stuck staring at the floating head (below) which absolutely terrified her. Not sure if the picture of Eva below is her reaction to the Haunted Mansion or to the cold ;)
On to something happier... After the Haunted Mansion, we went to Fantasyland to lighten the mood. We went on It's a Small World first. It was Eva's favorite ride in the entire Magic Kingdom.
Stella really wanted to go on the carousel. Her face shows the sheer joy she experienced!
The rest of the family had fun as well...
One good thing about waiting for the rides at the Magic Kingdom - they have things to keep kids and adults "occupied." The Winnie the Pooh ride had lots of activities that kept the kids entertained until we got to the front of the line. Great idea!
Mickey really wanted to go on the People Mover, but Stella seemed to have the best time. She was absolutely thrilled the entire time and she just kept repeating, "I'm having so much fun, I love this!" Look at the excitement on her face!
So...we decided to buy the meal plan with our hotel and tickets because it seemed to be the best way to stick to a budget, which we are notoriously horrible at doing while on vacation. Good idea in theory, BUT, we aren't big dessert eaters so not quite sure we'd do it again. Essentially, you are stuck getting dessert with every sit down meal - yikes! You also end up getting a ton of snacks which isn't bad with kids. You don't end up feeling guilty getting them a hot pretzel for $4.50, plus, there are plenty of healthy options including fresh fruit for snacks.
Ok, so this dessert that was an option for one of the kids meals, was hyped up as being a low sugar brownie. Sounds like a good idea for kids full of energy at a theme park, right? WRONG! The first ingredient in the brownie was Malitol, which is a sugar alcohol. Next to Malitol is a little asterisk. At the bottom of the brownie, next to the little asterisk's explanation - May cause laxative-like effect. Wow! Not giving those brownies to the babies!
This is a little better - unsweetened applesauce
On the 2nd day of our trip, we went to Hollywood Studios. It was blistering cold in the morning so we decided to find an indoor sit down restaurant for breakfast. Almost all of the eating establishments at Hollywood Studios are outdoors - definitely not meant for the cold weather! We were lucky enough to get a seat at Hollywood and Vine, which turns out to have a character breakfast. The girls were super excited about the Mickey Mouse waffles too!
Stella enjoyed the characters the most.
That $4.50 pretzel I talked about
The balloons were pretty cool, although who really wants to carry a balloon around all day?!
Overall, Hollywood Studios was our least favorite park. There wasn't much to do with little kids there.
We wandered back to the Boardwalk for dinner and dined at Kouzzina by Cat Cora. Great meal, great dessert and wonderful french press - ahhhh. By the time we got back to the hotel, Grandma and Grandpa Ward were there! They stayed in a hotel about 15 minutes away and visited every evening.
On our 3rd day, we took the ferry to Epcot. We were up early again and it was so serene and empty outside, I took this photo literally while running out to the docks:
All of the kids were impressed with Maelstrom, the viking ship in Norway. Eva makes a mighty fine viking, in my opinion!
We ate lunch in Morocco, which was wonderful! Stella took her time eating her Baklava.
There are a ton of 3D shows at all of the theme parks. There was no wait for Captain EO, so we thought we'd check it out. Who knew it was Michael Jackson? The commentator mentioned that Captain EO was hot in 1986, but I don't remember that at all.
We went inside the Character Connection and you can imagine how blown away Eva was when she got to give Lotso a hug!
Stella insisted on waiting in line to see Mr. Incredible. She got all the way up to the front and started to get a little nervous. He was very good with her - got down on one knee, gave her a knuckle knock, blew her kisses etc. She finally posed for a picture with him and then decided to blow him a kiss back. He fell over grabbing his heart. I think she melted it :)
On the way out of Epcot, we grabbed a little Cotton Candy for Stella. Another great use of the included snack voucher!
Stella and I made a little deal on the way back to the hotel. She promised to give me a good smile for a photo if I promised to carry her back to the hotel. I think I got the better end of the deal!
Todd and I were lucky enough to get a date night with grandparents in town! We took a taxi to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Jiko - fantastic. After dinner we went back to Epcot so we could go on Spaceship Earth. I don't know why, but I love that ride. I love the end with all of the twinkling stars - magical!
4th day - back to the Magic Kingdom!
We revisited a few of the rides we loved and made sure that we were able to try the rides we didn't try the first day. We figured out the trick of using the fast pass.
Mickey's favorite ride ended up being Space Mountain. He got to ride it twice. Eva really wanted to ride it, but we finally convinced her not too!
The kids loved the roller coaster, Barnstormer. I'll never forget Eva screaming "I love this so much!" as loudly as she could in the middle of the ride. So cute!
Lunch at Pinocchio's house:
It was a bit warmer this day, so Todd took Eva and Mickey on Splash Mountain while Stella and I took a raft to Tom Sawyer's Island. She seemed to really enjoy running around exploring the island.
We made dinner reservations at Wolfgang Puck in downtown Disney where we met up with the grandparents. They seated us 40 minutes after our reservation and it wasn't as great as I had expected. Unfortunately the experience was only ok. People in the lobby with reservations were livid. Tough to stay happy when you have toddlers waiting to eat dinner at 7PM after a long day! Fortunately the girls were well behaved!
The last and final day, we headed back to Epcot where we had our princess breakfast at Akershaus in Norway. I love how Stella is always studying a map on our journey!
The girls got to meet Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora and Ariel. They did 2 processionals around the dining hall and were treated like royalty. Ariel seemed to have a little thing for Mickey ;)
We headed straight for Test Track after breakfast. I was a little worried because I didn't know what to expect and I was feeling a little full from breakfast! Fun ride! Both Mickey and Eva got to go on twice.
We did quite a bit of carrying around the park during the first few days due to the cold weather. The last day, I think this carry was from exhaustion!
The ice cream was on the last day after it had actually warmed up.
Stella drumming:
Shaved Ice from Japan - Epcot. Stella had honeydew, Eva had rainbow. They were an absolute disaster! Tasty, just messy. It didn't help that the Japanese women were drumming and Eva insisted on dancing while eating her ice. Mickey opted to hold off until we got to France, where we had chocolate crepes!
Mickey couldn't help but laugh at the messy babies and their shaved ice!
We stayed at Epcot until about 4:30 or so, then we packed up the car and headed for Tampa. We visited my Grandmother, the kids' Great Grandmother for a few hours. I wish we could have stayed longer. We all had such a great visit! We got back on the road for Raleigh around 8:00PM. We took turns driving and made it home around 6:00AM - Yuck!
We immediately went to bed, knowing that the kids probably wouldn't sleep quite as long as we would like. We all got up around 10:30 when someone was pounding on our door. Not sure who that was, but ugh!
Grandma and Grandpa Olson were in town and celebrated New Year's Eve with us. We hosted some friends for dinner, made it an early night, and blamed it on the children's bed times ;)
2 comments:
What a great trip Amanda and such a fun way of giving it to the kids on Christmas morning...may have to steal that idea some day! The kids are getting so big! Glad you got to visit with Gram too.
We had a blast :) Gram looked great and was surprised! We didn't tell her we were coming, so she was excited, especially to see the kids!
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