Christmas and Disney World

A busy Christmas vacation. We drove to Florida on Christmas day. The roads were pretty empty most of the day--still not my favorite thing to do on Christmas. We had the kids open presents the day before complete with a visit from Santa. So they still got Christmas, and a Christmas Eve celebration the night before where we acted out the nativity.

The big present for everyone were Razer scooters. The kids are doing great on them. Although they've only ridden them three times. It's been too cold and icky. Even Jacob has mastered balancing and going. They have a lot of fun on them.

Rob got Caleb a marble roller coaster, which is actually pretty awesome. There have been many coasters built with short tempers and rising frustration. I think this happens when someone gets a toy he really wants to play with himself, but gives it to his kid instead. Happily today was the first built roller coaster with no yelling, snapping or frustration. It was an out and back coaster and a lot of fun. Rob is already talking expansion kits (notice the plural) and a goal of filling the entire house with a huge roller coaster.

Beth got mostly crafts and a circuit set. In her letter to Santa with the cookies she requested some photos of Santa and the elves. Well Santa delivered and it cemented her faith in him. She showed those pictures off as often as she could the next few days.

Jacob got a Batman castle since he is so fascinated by Batman currently. He is in a Batman suit complete with cape and mask more than he is in normal clothes. He's enjoyed playing with it. Rob got Jacob dressed for church today by convincing him that he needed to be Bruce Wayne for awhile and disguise himself in a suit and tie. He gave him the entire spiel and had Jacob repeat back his name and profession. "Bruce Wayne --millionaire playboy" in the hopes that Jacob would introduce himself that way at church. When I picked him up from Sunbeams he was talking about Batman with his teachers, so it may have worked.

So my baby started Sunbeams today. It's hard to believe. I look at him and he's not a baby anymore. He looks grown up, and has a fun personality all his own. Sometimes it makes me so proud other times I'm sad since I won't have another little one at home. Still I'm so proud of him--his transition was smooth and he can be mature when he wants to be.

Disney World was fun, but crowded and cold. We went early, and got there when it had just opened. And managed to squeeze in five rides in less than three hours. That was good time considering walking. It got crowded around lunch time and the lines got long. Rob was looking at an article talking about crowd control in Disney World during the busiest times and how they've managed to get the average number of rides ridden up to 10 for the day. Well we put that number to shame we counted everything we did and we got up over fifteen. That's not shabby considering we went on one of the most crowded days of the year.

Also consensus on best rides were roller coasters. Jacob rode the Barnstormer twice in a row and whoo hooed the whole way! Chloe loved Space Mountain. Caleb's and Beth's favorite was Big Thunder Mountain hands down. Beth only rode it because Kim agreed to ride with her, and they were both nervous about the ride. Now Beth wants to go back to Busch Gardens to ride Loch Ness.

It was nice to see family in Florida. They had fun playing with the kids down there. They are close to our kids age. We call them cousins, though I don't know what they are technically. Rob's cousin's son's kids.

Now we are ready - okay I'm ready - to send the kids back to school. It's been a nice week and half off, but the troops are getting restless and the weather hasn't let us get the kids out to play as much as I like.

Have a great 2011!