Christmas Day

For the last several years we've hosted Christmas at our house. Dean cooks seafood gumbo as the main course & there are lots of appetizers & desserts. Dean's parents & my family all come over. I was very excited to see this little one!

 Isn't Logan's sweater so cute?? We were so surprised that he didn't touch my big tree. My smaller tree in the kitchen did get his attention though.

I thought this was so funny how he was just sitting in the window chilling, then he got a little closer & BAM he wanted to touch!

Dean's gumbo was good as usual.

Logan liked it too. Of course there isn't much Logan doesn't like! Then we opened gifts.

These are my cousins, Brooke & Dylan.

Can you tell Dylan is over the picture taking?? Logan loves him some Brooke!

How sweet is that? I think everytime she stood still he gave her a hug! This is Logan with his Nonk.

Logan with his Nona (my mom).

This is me with Logan & my cousins, Dylan, Brooke & Brendan. All 4 of these kids are my Godchildren.

I hope whoever was holding the camera that we're all looking at sends me a copy of this. It was quite a feat to have all 4 kids looking in the vicinity of the same camera & also keeping Logan still long enough to take it! This is my brother Scott with all the kids. He's Logan's dad & the cousins Godfather.

Yes, Scott's wearing a Griswold Family Christmas t-shirt that he was oh so very proud of! He's a 33 yr. old kid! When you ask Logan for a kiss he gives you a big open mouth wet kiss that pretty much amounts to him licking you. It's the sweetest thing ever if you don't mind a little baby slobber.

Dean is not a big fan of baby slobber!!! HAHA! It was really cute!

I'm off today but Dean is at work. His holiday is Monday which is really annoying. He gets more vacation time than I do & more holidays so it's a real bummer when one of the holidays we both have isn't on the same day. How am I spending my day? Well, I was supposed to be going to lunch with my friend & Godchild & getting my nails done. Instead, I'm waiting on the washing machine repairman to show up. The washer is working but it's doing some funky thing where it won't automatically go into the spin cycle. So here I sit. Tonight we're going to a party at a friends house. Very casual & they live around the corner so as long as it isn't raining we'll walk. What about y'all? I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!!

Toodles!

Christmas Eve

We don't have any set plans for Christmas Eve. Generally, what we do depends on everyone's work schedule. Because Christmas was on a Saturday, I was off on Christmas Eve. Love when that happens! This year we went to Dean's cousins & did Christmas with that side of the family. Santa even showed up.

Cody was excited to see him.

Sam liked him too.

Emma, on the other hand, wanted NOTHING to do with him! She told us all "I scared" & didn't leave her pawpaw's lap until Santa made his exit.

Emma liked anyone that wasn't Santa, including me! I love her dress!

I can't believe we managed to get Emma & Sam looking at the camera at the same time!  

Time for me to make a hair appt. & get those roots fixed!

Once Cody opened this, we didn't see him again!

Lexie loved her robe that we gave her.

Apparently, I was really shaky taking all these pictures!

The kids all had fun opening their gifts.

Me & Dean. This was about the time I was getting really tired!

We had a great night eating, chatting & opening gifts. After the party, Dean & I went to 11:00 Mass. That was the first time we'd been to that Mass & I'm thinking it may be our last. We were both really tired! It probably would've been better if we hadn't been in Disney for a week prior! 

Toodles!

Our Last Day

Wednesday we spent the day at Hollywood Studios. Tower of Terror is my absolute favorite ride!

I thought it was really spooky how the sign is the only thing you can see in the picture. I could ride this thing all day long!

Devin, Amelia-Ann, Alexandra, Miles, Anna, Allie & Thomas in line for Rockin' Roller Coaster. We all love this ride too but wish it was 3 times longer!

At Hollywood Studios there were several streets set up with the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. It's BEAUTIFUL!!!

 Every surface is covered in lights. I didn't realize when I took the picture that Merry Christmas was there & lit up. I should've taken the picture from the other way so you could read it.

 These angels are suspended by wire above the streets so it really looks like they're flying.

Every 15 minutes the lights "dance" to Christmas music & it snows. It was really unbelievable!

Dean & I with the lights in the background. Please ignore my lovely ensemble. I would never dress like that anywhere other than Disney! Everyone knows my mantra is "cute over comfort". I need to add a footnote to that - "Except at Disney"!!

We left Thursday, but not before one last visit to the Magic Kingdom. We were able to ride Space Mountain again & do a couple of things we'd missed & of course we had to visit the Confectionery on Main Street!

It was really hard deciding what we wanted. I went with turtle fudge. After the confectionery, we took the Monorail to the Grand Floridian to look at the Christmas decorations & have breakfast. I wanted to see the Gingerbread house.

I can't imagine the size bowl they had to use!!!

It's hard to see just how big this thing is but there were 2 ladies inside selling candy out of it.

Then we had breakfast.

Then it was time to go home....

Toodles!

The Rest Of The Trip!

Monday we were at Animal Kingdom when they opened & they opened at 7:00 am. Yes, it was 11:30 before we got back to the resort Sunday night. Tired? Uh yeh!!

This was on our way into the park. Yes, it was still dark.

Animal Kingdom wasn't very crowded & we were able to do everything we wanted multiple times. We left around 12:30 & went back to the hotel for a nap. It was lovely! Dinner Monday night was at Artist Pointe at Wilderness Lodge. It was really nice.

The "kid" table at dinner.

All the kids in front of the tree at Wilderness Lodge.

Dean & I.

Tuesday we spent the day at Epcot. Of course we were there when it opened & rode everything multiple times. The weather was GORGEOUS!!! After we rode we moved onto the country side & had lunch in Mexico. The boys decided to drink around the world so the trek begins. They had 1 beer from every country. Well, minus Japan. They were ready for food & nothing else by the time we got there! The girls had Grey Goose Slushes.

Well, most of us. Kitzia stuck with beer. When asked if she was drinking around the world she replied "I'm drinking in every other country"! HA! These things are DIVINE!!!! So good that I had two! Of course we also had pastries in France. A trip to Epcot isn't complete without both of these.

Dean & I with some of the kids!

For dinner we ate in Japan at a hibachi place. Those of you who know me, know I don't eat "Nese". JapaNESE, ChiNESE, LebaNESE, etc. No offense to anyone that does, it's just not my thing. However, I thought I could do hibachi. I mean who can mess up shrimp right? Yeh, about that. They didn't mess it up but they didn't do anything to it either. It just tasted like plain old unseasoned shrimp. I don't know if this is how it's usually done & I'm just spoiled from living in South Louisiana but I wasn't impressed. Dean got the filet which was REALLY GOOD! I ate some of his. Needless to say I'm sticking to my "No Nese" stance.

EPCOT was a 14 hour day & this was not a quick meal. We were all pooped!

This was right before Amelia-Ann fell asleep at the table!

More later!

Toodles!

WOW!

We're home & Christmas is over. Hard to believe. We had a fabulous time at Universal & Disney with our friends & came home to a wonderful Christmas with our families!

I tried to post while we were on our trip but it just didn't happen much. We were up early & out late. In my last post I had the "glow" drink. A few people were asking me about it. The "ice cube", that it isn't ice but plastic, is what glows. It has a little switch that turns it on & off. Too cute!

I posted a little about Universal already. My favorite thing was Whoville! The Who's were walking all over. They were so cute!

Me & Amelia-Ann at Universal.

Sunday we spent the morning at Universal before going to Disney. Sunday night was Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We rode tons of stuff & watched the parade.

This is Stafford, Dawn, Miles, Amelia-Ann, MacKenzie & MacCullen on the Monorail on the way to the party. It was cold that night!

Me & Allie waiting on the train.

This, my friends, is Cliff "The Disney Nazi". He knows all the ins & outs of Disney & makes sure we get everything done. Yes, he did wear that hat all over Disney. It was great because he was easy to spot in a crowd!!

The Castle was GORGEOUS!!!

I guess that's enough for now!

Toodles!