Disney New Year: Travel Woes and Arrival Day

With our travel falling on December 29 and January 4, I thought (somewhat naively, perhaps) that we wouldn't have travel troubles since it wasn't peak holiday days.   And I've always felt that Chicago was the best airport to have as your home airport in winter because it has the appropriate resources to deal with the weather.   AND that Southwest was the best airline because of their flexibility in being able to exchange aircraft since they're all the same equipment.   Oh how silly of me!   

The weather caused a lot of delays and cancellations for travelers with pre-Christmas flights but most of that was resolved by Christmas Eve for every airline except Southwest.   They completely melted down and cancelled between 60 and 90% of their flights each day through December 29 before resuming mostly normal operations on December 30, a full week after the real weather.  

I had not been monitoring the news at all but a friend shared the sad news with me on Monday evening the 26th that her vacation had been cancelled as her Southwest flight was cancelled and no alternatives existed.   Although our flights weren't until Thursday, I started scrambling and reading everything I could....and booking a refundable American flight before they got crazy, which they did the next morning.   Ultimately after 3 days of worry, our Southwest flight departed only 2 hours late, and we were on it.  The backup American flights were cancelled and fully refunded.  I was incredibly thankful the whole week that we had so much flexibility.  We had another flight option.  We had always intended to pack carry on only, so that would allow us to pivot at the airport if we had to.   And I don't have a toddler in tow.  I have a well-traveled teen who would have just shrugged his shoulders and re-considered his snack purchases if I said we were moving from Midway to O'Hare for a different flight. 

When we got to MDW on Thursday, it was virtually empty.  I'm not sure why I still expected luggage to be stacked up in baggage claim (there was none) and people sleeping on the floors (they weren't) after so many days of limited flight operations.   

We made it to our resort, Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village - after dark.   We had a balcony off our bedroom and the living room that faced the savannah.   I wasn't sure what we would be able to see in the evening, but there were actually several animals that slept right outside our room.   And the giraffes (who sleep about 30 minutes a day from what I recall on my safari talks), wandered around grazing throughout the evening.   You could hear them crunching about in the grass even when your eyes weren't adjusted and you couldn't see them.   My iphone camera took great photos (no flash) that were like my infrared camera.  I'd take a photo of a dark area then look at the photo to see what was there hiding!

After dropping our bags and groceries, we went to Disney Springs for a late dinner and shopping.  William quickly found some Legos to spend his Christmas money on.   I began my futile hunt for three specific Christmas ornaments.  I eventually found one of them in the parks a few days later, and learned the other two were only offered earlier in the year.    

Local "Disney celebrity" Eddie Maserati is a retiree who is known for dancing at the Disney Springs stages.  He's got a signature look that is full of bling as well as a signature dance move/clap.   John and I have spotted him before, so we had to point him out to William.  

Animal Kingdom was one of the more understated resorts as far as Christmas decorations, but I thought these lights on the Kidani sign were a nice welcome home each evening.

Home for the Holidays: The Food

We made a lot of fun food and drinks and desserts for the holiday.    And we had friends and family who were so generous with gifting us food treats, too!  I'm so thankful they've heard our love language of food and experiences (and consumable gifts).

John was out of town for several weeks leading up to Christmas.  One of our evenings at home just the two of us, William and I decorated Christmas cookies that I purchased from our neighborhood bakery.

My friend Michelle sent us bonbons and chocolate bars from Houston chocolatier, Cacao and Cardamom.  This is the holiday collection and each of the bonbons is a holiday favorite from around the world.  For example, one is eggnog flavored.  Another is chocolate covered cherry.  One is Germany's gluwein.   Each has been a delight!

Uncle Ryan and Grandma and Grandpa all sent goodies for our Christmas meals!  We had the ingredients for brunch (pancake mix, bacon, jams and fruits) as well as meats, cheeses, crackers, nuts and spreads for our charcuterie board!   So wonderful!

William and I made three types of cookies for gifting:  cranberry white chocolate, red velvet kisses and peanut butter stuffed brownies.   I also made gingerbread muffins but we ate all those ourselves!

I made several different holiday cocktails over the course of the long weekend.   I posted them on Instagram because I thought they looked fancy!  They were all pretty tasty, too!  Thanks to John and Ryan most of the spirits were already on hand in the bar when I looked in the fridge and pantry for inspiration and found recipes.

And William made us cocoa and fresh whipped cream!  We ate and drank and ate way too much.  It was a lot of fun trying new things!  Our fridge is still full of meats and cheeses and spreads so I guess we'll be enjoying those well into 2023!

Home for the Holidays: Christmas Weekend

Since we were home for Christmas Eve this year, we were able to attend services at St. Thomas and William participated in the telling of the Christmas Story with the other youth of the church.   This is the first time he has ever had the chance to do that, so it was very special that he did this year, as the high school kids don't do it.   

Our assigned seat was second row, center behind Baby Jesus's extended family, so we had a great view of everything.   The little boy was so well behaved, only fussing a little when he wanted to sit up to see what was happening around him.   The girl portraying Mary and the boy portraying Joseph were very gentle and concerned about him feeling comfortable.    All of the kids did a great job!

Attempt at a family selfie for fun before someone took our picture for us!  She said she wasn't very good at taking pictures though, and the stage was getting crowded, so we didn't ask her to retake it.

At home after church we had a charcuterie board and steaks and watched a movie.  Looks like I only managed to take pictures of one board and two drinks that I already posted elsewhere.  

On Christmas morning we leisurely opened gifts and stockings before making brunch and just relaxing the rest of the day.  Since no one really makes lists in our house, it's always interesting to see what we get for one another.  Most years we wrap something and put our own name on it when we think of something that we want or that would count as a gift.  I was pretty proud of finding two things for John to wrap, including this metal sign of a murderous Mickey Mouse.

William got the one thing on his wish list!  He pointed this set out when the Lego catalog came earlier in the fall.   And I doubt he thought to ask for it, but John thought to gift him a PlayStation upgrade!  It was definitely his highlight.  But I gifted him a series of books called The Ranger's Apprentice, and he can't get grounded from those, so....

Uncle Ryan gifted him new ties for his high school uniform.   The boys can choose any necktie or bow tie they prefer, so he sent him one with Mandalorian helmets and one with teeny tiny T-rex!   Both on modest navy or gray backgrounds so from a distance you can't tell what they are.  I was really impressed!  

Home for the Holidays: The Decorations

The decorations went up even earlier this year!   And we got the name of the exterior lighting company from our neighbors so we had the house and walkway outlined in white lights.   John lit and hung the giant wreaths in the peaks.  I'm not sure what I'll do next year if the Boy Scouts return to their pancake breakfast and stop selling wreaths!   One huge change with Christmas lights in the post-COVID and a hybrid work environment is that I am only driving into the neighborhood two evenings a week.  Seeing lights on the houses is definitely the bright (literal and figurative) of the dark winter commute.

Inside, Sir Albert Kristoff returned to his spot in the entry way announcing the Disney Christmas tree.  It was very late in the season before we got the Disney train set  displayed but William did have his advent calendar under this tree and used the lights of the tree each morning to unwrap his treasure.   I enjoy using it as the night light (or more appropriately, morning light) to gently wake up.  

 

In the family room, we got a new, bigger tree to better fill the space.   It was very realistic looking after John spent the time to set it up and fluff and fluff and fluff all of the branches.  And we added this year's nutcracker, whom we named Sir Edmund Rudolph.   I'm really torn on whether I want Home Depot to make this an annual tradition.....I'm going to very quickly run out of space to nicely display 8 foot tall music playing nutcrackers in my house!

While I don't spend very much time on the couch, one evening leading up to the holidays, I did sit down long enough to enjoy some cocoa that William made.  I'm sure this was one of the evenings that he and I were on our own while John was traveling, so we enjoyed dinner and a TV show together instead of each doing our own thing.

Couple more photos of the house after some snow.   Not all of these are holiday decor photos.   But I love how it feels like living in a snow globe!  Especially since we have an entire mantle of snow globes on display at Christmas.

On theme with Disney + nutcrackers, I got these tabletop nutcrackers this year to accompany my countdown calendar.   I never really played them, but thought they looked cute in the kitchen window!  Christmas morning there were two of us up early and one who was not.....which is actually a pretty usual day.   So we had coffee and started the cinnamon rolls baking and waited out our elf.   At least that's what I was calling him because I have no idea what time he went to bed.  I just know that there were a lot more presents under the tree and in the stockings when I woke up than when I went to bed and I'm not sure where any of it was hiding!

I forgot we had a photo of the tree before it was fluffed and decorated!   John took a photo of William when I was out of town since we was dressed up for his 8th grade graduation photo.  Sometimes (a lot of the time!) I can't believe how grown up he's gotten each year in middle school!