Christmas, Mickey and Family

This Christmas we were  given the use of my Dad's timeshare in Orlando and the chance to visit Mickey Mouse's House (as O calls it).  Since we are on our way to Denver, we decided to take the chance and go for it.  We took our time driving both there and back and got to enjoy some southern hospitality in Savannah, Amelia Island and St. Augustine.  Its funny, I guess its been a long while since I have been in the south, I so enjoyed the good manners, beautiful trees and weather and realized how much I miss some aspects of the slower, yummier life down there.  On the way south we stopped over in Savannah and my Uncle Kenny and his beautiful girls Keeley and Kara agreed to meet us there.  The town is so lovely and my cousins and Uncle were a real treat to hang out with.  It has been way too long since I have gotten to see family and I have always thought K&K would be a ton of fun....I was right!  The boys loved hanging out with Grandpa Jones' baby brother....you would have thought that they had known him all there life, there just something about those Jones men :)

Then we made it to Orlando and Auntie Anne!  As always the boys were in heaven hanging out with Anne (Orson "Mom, Auntie Anne is my favorite toy").  We decorated the condo for Christmas and then woke up the next morning to go see Mickey Mouse!  Orson was big enough to ride all the rollercoasters this year and loved almost everyone. ("Can we ride this 18,000 more times, Auntie Anne?").  Ferdinand got to ride a few of them (he loved the tea cups, dumbo, the race cars and The Country Bears, he did not enjoy the Haunted House!) and Theodore and I even got to go on a few.  Ferdinand had a small meltdown during lunch that resulted in him banging his head into a table and biting through his lip but as it resulted in a perscription of a popsicle, he wasn't as upset by it as his Dad.  We made it all the way to the electric light parade...what a great day. (On the way in to the park Orson said "Ferdinand, this is going to be the best day ever."

On Tuesday we went to downtown Disney to see Santa Claus.  It went well but unfortunately Matt ended up feeling sick the entire day, so the rest of our plans didn't materialize.  He sat in the car while we visited the shops, Orson and Ferdinand enjoyed the huge lego shop and all the Mickey Mouse stuff!  That night the boys wrote a note to St Nick, giggled until quite late in bed and then finally fell asleep.

On Wednesday, we woke up pretty early and St. Nick had found us at the condo.  The boys were super excited by their Santa gifts and the presents from Aunt Anne.

 Orson was very upset that he got in trouble for trying to open Ferdinand's stocking....

 Do you think Orson was excited to receive a remote control monster truck?

After presents we headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios.  It was a much more low key day, Orson got to train to be a Jedi, Ferdinand and he loved seeing a puppet version of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (I didn't know that they both could sing a-long to the songs!), we colored with the Disney artists, met a lot of characters and then got to see the amazing Christmas lights.  It was a magical way to spend Christmas Day and we are so thankful for the time.

On the way home from Florida we stopped at St. Augustine to see the fort, eat some gluten free (and in Matt's case gluten full) cajun food, and explore the town.  It was sooooo cold!!!! In fact we experienced unusually warm weather at the beginning of the trip and then unseasonably cold weather at the end (over 80 to close to freezing!).  We also made a stop on Amelia Island, someday I want to go back there, the beaches were so nice but the temperature was just too cold to enjoy them.

St Augustine

 Amelia Island

Unscheduled stop at a State Park!  Yeah, being out of the car!

Also around the season

We tried hard to focus on Advent this year, I made a Jesse Tree and Orson and I put up ornaments and read the bible story for them everyday, we opened an Advent Calendar and lite the Advent wreath.  I also made a large on out of contact paper that I put up in the playroom.  Every Week we "lite" one of the candles and talked about what they stood for.  The boys are still young but I can see little lights going off in Orson's head this year.  We also decorated our Christmas tree before we left, Ferdinand redecorated it quite often.

Orson's school put on a little Christmas sing.  Orson has grown so much this year and is suddenly participating and enjoying putting on shows.

The weather has been very cold and we have enjoyed a few snow days!

We opened the rest of our presents (just a few from us and some from the Grandparents) on the Feast of the Holy Family.  The boys loved having a second Christmas!