Christmas In Rhode Island!

We landed in RI very late at night and had the whole next day to relax and enjoy our Bristol Family. We had a blast just chilling and relaxing with Mema, Papa and the cousins. And then the best part of the day happened: Uncle Paul brought us over some baked, stuffed lobster!

Talk about an EPIC first meal in RI!!

On Sunday Sasha and I drove up to Boston to see the Nutcracker with Auntie Tara and Marcy. We started going to the Nutcracker when Sasha was 2 and went 4 years in a row. She LOVES it and sits through it spellbound and has done so since she was a toddler. And the last time we went she was 5, so re-kindling this Christmas tradition was long overdue!

Finally it was Christmas Eve and time for an beautiful Christmas Eve church service.

Followed by an epic meal with the entire family over at Aunt Karen's house. What a crew!

These 4 together usually spells trouble...

We ate until we couldn't eat anymore and then relaxed and just enjoyed the good company. And we drank some Defiant by the fire...

Then Santa came to the door! The kids were so excited and Teddy could not believe that there was a present for him! Santa always finds us!

What do you have there Ted?

These 2... sharing a seat, always together, whenever we are home for a visit. Precious cousins...

Hotwheels?!? Santa is the MAN!

It was hard to drag ourselves away from the gathering but our beds beckoned and we had stockings to hang! The next morning the kids woke us up bright and early to see what the Big Guy delivered!

Christmas Mornings are the best!

We drank our coffee, watched the kids, took our time, and just made it last as long as we could. Then we took of to our cousin's house for Christmas dinner. It was a wonderful day!

After Christmas we had several more days to enjoy the wintery weather and our family.

We had movies, playdates, cold walks, and lots and lots of grandparent cuddles. We have to bank those until summer!

Disney Christmas - Our last day!

 Our last day in the World dawned bright and clear. Teddy called me to the window to see a couple of hot air balloons sailing through the sky. We didn't have to catch our flight until 7:30 pm so we still pretty much had a full day to play!

We checked out of Boardwalk and gave all our stuff to Bell Services and made it to the MK in time for the Morning Show. The family of the day was hysterical. They were like homesteaders or something, totally not what you'd expect to see at Disney. The dad had a long beard and looked like Pa Ingalls from the Little House books. I imagine that his wife had to talk him into the whole trip and then he ended up riding the steam train in with Mickey and co. He was grinning from ear to ear and waving his head off. So cool to see a family make such an amazing memory together!

 We did a few rides and then went over to check out Enchanted Tales with Belle with a FP+ at 9:30. What a totally awesome attraction! It's basically a character meet and greet but they've turned it into something really special. First we entered a workshop room where a small picture turned into a doorway and let us into the wardrobe room. I will have to see that one again before I can figure it out. It was an amazing effect! The Cast Member told us that we were going to surprise Belle by re-telling her story for her about how she and the Beast fell in love and Sasha got picked to play the part of the Beast!

 She was thrilled and wonderful in the role and had a huge grin on her face the whole time. Definitely a very special moment!

 Video of the whole thing HERE.

 At the end Belle Thanks each child and gives them each a bookmark to remember her. What a great way to meet a character!

 Next we hit some rides! I got to ride Dumbo with my favorite guy:

 And Mermaid with my Princess!

 We were hanging around new Fantasyland when we realized that Gaston was about to come out. There was no one in line so we were first!

 This guy is HYSTERICAL! Sooo full of himself. He told the girls that he was sure we were delighted to meet and admire him and then he turned to Teddy and asked if he had come to admire him or challenge him.

Even with a shoulder squeeze! Of course Teddy said "I'm here to challenge you!"

 So off they went to the nearest horizontal surface to settle the matter.

 Gaston was triumphant. I mean look at those arms! But he gave us all lessons on how to flex:

 

And then he gave Ted some pointers on how to pick up ladies. According to Gaston: "You just grab your collar, flex your arm, cock one eyebrow, look her in the eye and say 'Bam.'" I don't think he needs any help Gaston....

 After that we had a FP to eat at Be Our Guest which is pretty much the coolest thing ever. You bypass this MASSIVE line of people waiting to get in and get brought straight to your table and your food comes right to you. We will be doing this again.... what a no-brainer! We even got a table in the mysterious "West Wing"!

 After that we strolled around and enjoyed our last few minutes in the Magic Kingdom.

 On our way out Sasha's fav parade started so we stopped to watch it go by. What a great capper on a nice morning!

 Goofy knows how to "Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it!"

After that Mom had to head to the airport so we drove her out to MCO and said a sad good-bye. But the kids and I still had several hours to kill and we were not going to waste them sitting at the airport! We headed back to Downtown Disney. It was a perfect day!

 We hit the lego store and checked out all the displays. Gaston would be proud:

And then we got a legendary DisneyLAND corn dog from the new food trucks that they brought into DD down at the House of Blues end of things. YUM!!!

We had a fantastic trip and we were sad to say good-bye to WDW for a whole year as there will be no trips in 2014. But you can't really be sad when you are getting on a plane to go have Christmas in Rhode Island!

Disney Christmas Days 5 & 6

On Wednesday the kids and I headed back to the MK to play Sorcerers. We were determined to beat the game on medium! It was a wonderful morning!

It took us three rounds and we got a bit distracted jumping on some rides but we defeated 3 villains and earned the Novice level.

Master Sorcerer Indeed!

We had lunch reservations at the Poly where we were going to meet Mom so around noon we headed out just as the crowds were heading in. It had been a great morning!

Does anyone else have kids that act like complete squirrels the second they get on that monorail? If we get a compartment to ourselves it's like jungle-gym time!

The Poly was gorgeous. But then it always is! Less Christmassy than some of the other Deluxe resorts but then again the theming here doesn't really lend itself to Christmas...

We had an awesome lunch at Kona and our chef was a Paleo eater as well so he knew just what to cook for us!

Polynesian Wreath:

After some chill time back at the resort and a swim in the pool we headed back to the MK for normal fireworks and Wishes.

Another perfect evening! We were so lucky with weather on this trip!

Not too crowded!

We experimented with getting all our FP+ reservations in the evening. It worked really well! In the am everything was a walk-on since we were there for park opening and in the evening we were able to stroll around, ride some less popular attractions with little wait, and stroll right onto the headliners with our FP+ reservations. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out after the new mine train opens...

We also got a FP+ for Main Street Electrical Parade. BEST DECISION EVER!!!! Our reserved spot was RIGHT in front of the Castle in the central hub in a roped-off area saved just for us. We got there about 20 mins ahead of time and had a perfect spot right on the parade route. Best thing was that as soon as the parade started they took up all the ropes so we had perfect views and then we got to stay right there for the Castle show AND Wishes, so for one FP+ it was like getting 3 things! Mom had a bench to sit on and when everyone came crowding in for Wishes the kids got to stand on the bench so they had perfect views for all 3 things...

What a spot!

This is the best vantage point I have EVER seen the parade from. And we got to see it at Christmas with the dreamlights on the castle.... awesome!

Did I mention it was a perfect spot?

We did make it through the rest of the evening awake and in good spirits but the same cannot be said of the bus ride home...

The next day was Epcot. I love this park. And I LOVE coming in through the International Gateway. Feels like the park is all yours!

Good morning Epcot!

THIS is why you get here for park opening:

We had a great time doing all the headliners in Future World: Mission Space, Test Track, Soarin' you name it. Then we headed to the Norway Pavilion at 10:45 so we would be the first ones in line to meet Anna and Elsa. Yeah..... that didn't pan out. Turns out that people had raced straight there at PARK OPENING and had been sitting for 2 hours waiting for them to show up at 11am. By the time we got there they were taking slots for the 1pm showing. So anyway you slice it Anna and Elsa are a 2 hour wait! I am not a 2 hour wait kind of girl and Thank God, neither are my kids so we ran into the Norway gift shop just hoping to sneak a peek. We were right there when Anna and Elsa came walking right through the shop past where we were standing and said "Good-morning!" to us on the way to their meet and greet area! So we didn't get to take a photo WITH them, but we got to take a photo of them AND get a nice greeting from them, and I'll take that over a 2 hour wait any day! The kids were psyched and we checked A&E off our list.

This is what Epcot felt like pretty much all day. I have never had a more mellow, uncrowded time!

We made our way around just popping into pavilions and checking out exhibits and shops:

And we got to listen to the Christmas Story-tellers in each pavilion! Here's the one in Italy:

Then we headed to France for our Candlelight Processional Lunch. If you get a meal package you get to go straight in to one of the evening shows without a 2+ hour wait. This was soooo worth doing! We had a fabulous meal and later the line for the CP stretched all the way back to Italy! And this was on an uncrowded day!

We went back to the resort for a break and a swim and then headed back into Epcot for the 5:30 CP. It was amazing, inspiring, and so worth the wait!

Our celebrity narrator was Edward James Olmos and he did a great job. If you don't know about the Candlelight Processional it's a narration of the Christmas Story straight out of the Bible, interspersed with the most amazing old-school carols sung by  this massive choir with a live orchestra.
I challenge anyone to go to this and not tear-up!

Afterwards I tried to take a sunset panoramic of my favorite park:

We had dinner in Morocco and then a traditional Scandinavian dessert in Norway. It was the perfect evening. We were headed to take one more ride on Soarin' when we saw that the meet and greet had NO LINES! So we charged in! Mickey was hysterical. He pushed the 3 of us to the side:

And had eyes only for Mom!

She was in heaven! He made such a fuss over her and made her feel so special!

Finally he let the rest of us in for a picture!

Then we got to meet my favorite guy!

Minnie was NONE TOO PLEASED to hear of Mom's special moment with Mickey. She finally forgave us though....

Then it was onto a special viewing area for Illuminations with the Christmas Tag. These two stood in awe for 20 minutes with their arms wrapped around each other. I could barely watch the show, I was having such a great time watching them. It could not have been a more perfect day.