New Year's Eve

William sent out 2015 with a bang:  a double play date day!   First we went to the SciTech Museum with the Clarks to celebrate Noon Year's Eve.  It was a totally adorable little celebration complete with sparkling cider, Chex Mix, a balloon and snowflake drop, noisemakers and party hats!  All of this was just topping off our 90 minutes exploring and playing at the museum.

After resting up and lunch at home, we met up with his best friend from daycare, Liam, to play games at Brunswick Zone.  We were all using up the vouchers we got from William's birthday party back in May!  We had family dinner out at a new Mexican restaurant but they turned our table so fast that we were home by 9.  Even after playing Left, Center, Right and Yahtzee, we only managed to stay up until 11:45! 

Christmas

We got home from Disney World on Christmas Eve afternoon - just in time to unpack and welcome Uncle Ryan and Ernie Cat, Grandpa Roger and Grandma Joni for the holiday!   We had Chicago style pizza for dinner and played some games and headed to bed to await Christmas morning.   I woke up in the middle of the night and quizzed John about whether Santa had arrived yet.  Good thing I checked because Santa did not follow the traditional protocol!   The way that a child (in my family) knows that a gift is from Santa is that it's the one unwrapped gift under the tree.   There was an extra gift wrapped and left in the basement of all places that I had to unwrap and leave out as Santa's helper.  Catastrophe was averted and the kiddo woke me up at 7:30 holding his new Star Wars X-Wing board game in my face saying that's what Santa had left him.   Luckily we had pre-established before going to bed the night before that present opening would not occur until 9:30, so I rested a bit more until the rest of the house woke up!

We added our leis from the Polynesian hotel welcome to William's tree when we got home.  I also got an updated picture of the family tree with our new ornaments (mini Starbucks cups and more mouse ears) and the presents under it. 

 

 

 

We were all spoiled by the thoughtful gifts from our family.  William got a Mickey Waffle maker and remote control drone from my parents!  Ryan restocked all of William's art supplies so we have been coloring for the past 3 days.  And John got William (on our behalf :-)) a new Star Wars video game and two giant Nerf guns so he could battle with Grandpa!  He was so excited by all of those gifts that he didn't even notice the Star Wars walkie talkies I put under the tree for him until the evening of the 26th!

Of course, the big event for the 25th wasn't just the present opening in the morning; it was the Star Wars movie in the afternoon!   All six of us enjoyed dinner and drinks and recliner seats to watch the Force Awakens.   Such a great movie!

Expedition Everest Progression

Four rides.  Watch the confidence grow!

 

 

Animal Kingdom

On Wednesday, I had to work so I stayed back in the hotel room while they went to Animal Kingdom.  They rode Expedition Everest four times in the first hour and then did the safari and Dinosaur before their Tusker House character brunch.  I have never been to Tusker House or on the Kali River Rapids ride they did, so I told William he'd have to take me back for those!  

 

 

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom was certainly the most crowded of the parks, which was not surprising.  With the expected large crowds for the holidays, the parks had extra long hours.  The Magic Kingdom was open 7-8 a.m. for resort guests and 8-midnight for everyone else.  On our last night, they were open from midnight-3 a.m. for resort guests, but we didn't go then!  We did, however, go at 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday to be one of the first in line when it opened at 7.  We got so much done in the first two hours that the park was open!  We actually left at 10 a.m. to head back to our hotel for brunch and had already ridden almost everything we wanted.   After a carb-heavy brunch, we took naps and headed back to the park around 2:30 to use our Fast Passes and have dinner and see the fireworks.   William looked so sweet sleeping in his little murphy bed when I went to wake him at 6 a.m.!  It was still dark when we arrived on the monorail at the Magic Kingdom!  Sunrise happened while we were on our first few rides (Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and Astro Orbiters)

 At 8 am, we headed back across the hub and over to Frontierland for a few more of our favorites.

 I had to take this picture on the Winnie the Pooh ride because for a lot of the four-seater rides, William sat by himself in front, and we rode in the back!  We're still wet from Splash Mountain here!

When we got back in the afternoon, we had a Fast Pass for the parade which means we got to sit in a reserved area.  It took about 20 minutes for the parade to get to us, so William did a selfie series.  During the parade, he sat on the curb next to a honeymooning couple while we sat behind him.  He kept up a running conversation with the bride telling her about the favorite characters he had met!  The toy soldiers were my pre-parade favorites thanks to their trumpet playing and foot stomping.  The reindeer were a surprise favorite with their cute dancing and jingling bells.  We even stopped to meet one later that day.

 

 

 

 

 

We finished up the evening with the Hall of Presidents, souvenir shopping (we finally have a Mickey in our house!) and Thanksgiving dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern.  The food was much better than I was expecting, and William tried more than I would have guessed, so a big win.  .