Disney World...finally!

We took Griffin to Disney World just after his second birthday, but he doesn't remember that trip at all.  I had to show him pictures to prove to him that he really had been there.  This past summer, Griffin asked so many times (on a daily basis for a couple of weeks!) when we could go to Disney World.  In the fall, Matt and I decided that we would give him a trip to Disney as his Christmas gift and go while Griffin and I were both on break from school. 

We managed to keep it all a secret until Christmas day.  We wrapped a few clues for Griffin (a toy plane, the Florida piece from his USA puzzle, and a box full of Disney characters), but it took him a little while to figure out just what his real gift was.  Once we helped him put all of the clues together and told him that we would be leaving on New Year's Day, he said, "Why can't we go today?"  We counted down for the next week...and we finally left for Orlando on the afternoon of January 1.

We stayed at one of the new Cars suites at the Art of Animation resort.  That part was a surprise for Griffin until we checked in.  He couldn't believe the cars parked outside of the hotel or the decor inside our room.

We spent the next day at Magic Kingdom.  The first and second thing Griffin wanted to do was the speedway.  He's had quite a bit of experience with driving on the Wii, but he was nervous to get behind the wheel of a "real" car...until I explained that it was on a track and he couldn't really get off course.  He loved his first rollercoaster experience (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) saying, "That was crazy...I loved it...I could ride that 1000 times!"  However, the feeling changed when we rode Space Mountain!  He said that was the only thing he didn't like about Disney World.  Here is a very tired boy riding It's a Small World--it was one of the very last things we did during our 12-hour day at Magic Kingdom.

The next day, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios.  We started the day with breakfast at Hollywood & Vine with a few of the characters from Disney Junior.

The biggest highlight of the whole trip was Griffin getting to participate in Jedi training and fight Darth Maul.  He also loved the Star Wars ride--we did it three times.  Griffin also really liked the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground and Toy Story 4D ride.

We took a break from Hollywood Studios for a little while in the afternoon.  We went back to our resort so Griffin could swim in the Cozy Cone pool and attend a drawing class led by a character artist.  Here he is with his sketch of Mickey Mouse.

We went back to Hollywood Studios after dark so we could see the Christmas lights and do a few more rides.

On January 4, we only had the first half of the day before heading to the airport to come home.  We went to Downtown Disney where we spent most of our time at Lego Land and the enormous Disney Store.

The Happiest (and Busiest) Time of the Year

The boys and I started getting in the Christmas spirit by going to Fantasy of Trees on Saturday, November 24.  Mimi joined us which definitely made it easier for me to keep up with all 3 of them since Matt was at the UT football game. 

On Sunday, Dec. 25, Elgie the Elf showed up and fixed us a North Pole breakfast.  

The babies really liked their "snowball" powdered doughnuts.  

Later in the day, Griffin decorated the Candy Cottage that we got at Fantasy of Trees. This is such a great product--we get all of the fun of decorating a gingerbread house without baking gingerbread or buying a new kit every year. Just snap the plastic pieces together, decorate, and then wash it all off at the end of the season and it's ready to use again for the next holiday!

On Friday, Dec. 7, we had a Grinch party.  After dinner, Griffin put on his Grinch pajamas, we all enjoyed green treats (Hudson had to get a little help with his green sherbet), and we snuggled together on the floor while we watched the original Grinch cartoon.

On Sunday, Dec. 9, we attempted to get the perfect picture for our Christmas card.  

We took a LOT of pictures.

For a baby that smiles all the time, Hudson just would not smile for the camera! 

Of course, that's Hudson--he already loves to break the rules and go against the flow.

It wasn't exactly the picture I'd set out trying to get, but this ended up being the winner.  

And years down the road, I'm sure I'll look back at it and love that it captured Hudson's personality.  

On Dec. 13, we took all of the boys to Ms. Sherri's house for her annual Cookies with Santa party.  Griffin had colored a stocking picture at school and drew a flying Transformer coming out of the stocking.  He took the picture to the party to show Santa and very thoroughly described just what the Transformer should be able to do. 

Baylor went right over to Santa and gladly got on his lap.  Hudson, on the other hand, did not want to go anywhere near Santa.   

This was Griffin's 4th year performing in the West Hills Baptist Christmas pageant.  Every year, the two-, three-, and four-year old classes sing songs and the Kindergarteners perform the nativity.

Griffin was excited to be one of the "big kids" this year and to get to have a role in the nativity.  He played the Innkeeper.