Merry Christmas

Aahhh...Christmas Eve. There's something calming about driving home from the Christmas Eve service and all the stores are dark, fewer cars are on the roads, and Christmas music is being played on the radio.

We've begun our annual traditions and we're anxious to spend the weekend with family and friends.


Making Cookies for Santa and others to enjoy.

Watching Polar Express together as a family.


We have two Christmas trees set up in our home. One is decorated all in red and silver and sits in our front entry area. The second is our family tree. It represents our childhood, our vacations, our babies' first Christmases, and our favorite things.
This ornament is a family favorite this year...after our recent trip to see the Mouse.

This angel ornament used to belong on my parents' tree. It's always been my favorite...I love the little angel hanging inside the halo. A few years ago my Mom gave a few of my childhood ornaments, including this one to our family. We have some of Jon's from when he was little as well.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Simple Christmas

With Christmas being just one week away, I think that it is so important to remember the true meaning of Christmas. His story, His birth. It is so easy to get caught up in the commercial celebration of the holiday season. Sometimes it even feels that pop culture is working against us as we try to teach our young children about the first Christmas.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the classics like Rudolph, the Grinch, and Charlie Brown. I love to decorate our home, enjoy driving through a particular subdivision in our town that has a decorating contest each year, and love sitting by the tree at night looking at the twinkling lights. I also love to see the expressions on the faces of those on the receiving end and I'll admit its pretty cool to receive something that may have been on your own wishlist.

However, the things that I remember most about the holidays are gatherings with friends and family, the pictures taken, the smiles on faces, and the stories we all share from year to year. I hope that each of you find time to embrace the real reason for the season and take time to make memories with your loved ones. Memories that will be treasured and remembered for years to come.

The Vacation is Over

On Sunday, we arrived back home to a driveway full of snow-a nice reminder of how wonderful it was to be in a warmer climate and feel the sunshine for more than a week!


Here are some stats from our week:

2500 miles on the Honda
-only $140 worth of gas thanks to the drop in prices....more than supporting our case to drive rather than to fly, even though we may have lost a little of our sanity along the way. Thank goodness for the invention of portable DVD players. The final "are we there yet?" count was 56. We became very familiar with rest stops and McDonald's bathrooms. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how smooth the drive went and would consider driving again for other vacations.



5 full days at the Disney Parks
-we walked many miles, stood in many lines, and made Magical memories. It was wonderful to see it through the kids' eyes. I realized after the 2nd or 3rd day that it would be impossible to do everything, but we definitely got our money's worth playing in the parks. It was so hard to leave the Magic Kingdom on our last day...as we were leaving, I kept turning around to see the castle and envision all of the wonderful memories we had made during the last week.


30 Character sightings
-a highlight for the kids on the trip. Avery kept asking if it was the "real" Tinker Bell or Buzz Lightyear, etc. Austin enjoyed them, but I don't think he smiled in any of the pictures with the characters. We have a book full of signatures and plenty of pictures to share.



5 Roller Coasters/Thrill Rides
-Avery has no fear! One of our favorite memories was watching in amazement as Avery overcame her initial fear and then became addicted to thrill rides. Thanks to Disney's Switch Rider pass for families with young children not old enough to ride, Avery was able to ride twice in a row on each ride, once with each parent (and even rode 6 times on Big Thunder Mountain). It was fun to be the 2nd one to ride with her, so that she could tell us what to expect in a play by play scenario for each ride.


1 afternoon at Sea World
-a friend of mine in Florida had given us passes to Sea World, so we happily took an afternoon to explore the animals and attractions there. For the holiday season, they turned their arctic north pole ride into a simulated Polar Express event. We rode the Polar Express to the North Pole and even got to meet Santa Claus once we arrived. We also enjoyed a Christmas Miracles Shamu (or Shampoo, as Austin says) night show.


398 photos and videos to remember the trip
-how am I ever going to decide what select few to put in our scrapbooks??

I hope to take the kids to Disney a few more times while they are growing up. After working for Disney during college, I have such respect for how they manage the day to day operations of the entire facility. Everything behind the scenes is so calculated to ensure that you truly have a magical experience. The level of service provided is top notch and everything was so clean.

We had a blast and it went by way too quickly. Now we're back and Christmas is just over two weeks away and I need to get busy.

Update from Disney

We've been too busy playing with Mickey Mouse and the princesses to update the blog.

We'll be anxious to tell everybody about it when we return, but here's just a teaser:




The weather has been anywhere from the low 60s to 80 degrees and mostly sunny. We've enjoyed visiting as many characters as we can find and have learned that Avery is a thrill ride junkie!

Though she still has little patience for riding in the car. The "are we there yet?" tally is up to well over 30.

Sadly, we'll start making the trek back north where we're sure to encounter snow.
We've enjoyed listening to Christmas music while wearing shorts.