Disney

We drove the airport, suggesting nothing different than the countless other long drives down the canyon.  I told the girls we had to drop some stuff off at the airport for dad, as we’ve done many times before.  I pulled into skycap, left the girls in the car and spent ten minutes checking bags.  As I got back into the car, I was greeted with the anticipated chorus of “I want to go in!”, “I want to go somewhere!”, etc.  So I told them the skycap man said there was a plane to Denver, only an hour ride if the kids wanted to go tonight.  We called Grammy n Papa to see if they wanted to go with us and drove to airport parking.  It took much longer than usual but eventually we parked, cleaned out the backpacks that we just happened to bring with us, loading them with the kid blankets we just happened to have in the car.  We made it through security, found Grammy and Papa and excited boarded a plane to Denver.  They spent the short flight coloring and talking, delighting in hot chocolate and gazing out the window.  Eventually I told them there was a surprise in Denver and enjoyed their many guesses what it could be.

We landed in Denver, made it into the airport and found our surprise: Daddy!  He had been on a business trip and flew to Denver to meet us with three Christmas gift bags for the girls.  Inside they each found a new pair of Mickey pajamas and we finally told them our great surprise: as an early Christmas gift, we were on our way to Disneyworld!  (We have been planning this surprise since late summer when kid sister announced her engagement.  We wanted to spend some time with her and getting to know her finacee before the wedding next summer.  As an added bonus, we planned to attend Mickey’s Christmas party and see Disneyworld decked out for Christmas.)  The girls dressed in their new jammies and soon we were on our second, much longer, flight to Orlando.  Since it was late, we watched movies until they were mostly asleep and spent the flight pretty quietly.

In Orlando, at 1:30am, we landed, retrieved our luggage, sent husband for our rental car, loaded up and took our very tired girls to the condo we had rented for our vacation.  This was our first Disney trip not staying on Disney property due to limited availability and expense in December.  But we found a great deal on a nearby condo that was decorated with Mickey and turned out to be incredible—spacious and perfect for what we needed.  Kid sister had checked us in earlier and the girls were thrilled to see her.

Unfortunately, the girls did not sleep in as hoped.  But Grammy was super sweet to let Husband and I sleep in while the kids played quietly and watched tv.  Soon Grammy, kid sister and I made a quick trip to the grocery store and returned home to make brunch and play through the afternoon.  The girls were delighted to find “Tinkerbell magic”, gift bags waiting for them (a favorite tradition they remember from previous Disney trips).  Each morning the bag would have something new for them.  On our first morning, it was princess plush dolls that they absolutely loved!  They played with them, read to them, took them in the car, even slept with them every day.

In the late afternoon we headed to Disney.  We stopped at kid sister’s apartment to pick up her finacee and meet her pets.  Her apartment rivaled any good toy store with a huge collection of books and figurines.  Plus she has a dog that looks like Bolt and is named for Jack Frost, so the kids could have stayed all day.  But instead we went to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Christmas party.

 We headed right for Fantasyland, the area of the park where both kid sister and her finacee work.  We met several of their friends and timed it right to hit as many attractions and characters as we could.  First stop was Enchanted Tales with Belle.  All of the girls got picked to participate in the storytelling event and lucky little L played the part of the Beast and got to dance with Belle.  We went on rides and wandered shops.  We devoured popcorn and stopped for dinner before finding a spot to watch some of the Christmas party special events.  We watched the stage show and then watched Elsa light up Cinderella’s castle (so gorgeous!)  My favorite part was watching E when Olaf came on stage, she was so ecstatic!  We met more characters, including Elsa and a very animated Anna.  We met Ariel, Rapunzel and Flynn, Cinderella and the Prince, Peter Pan and Wendy and watched the spectacular Christmas parade.  Meeting characters is always one of our very favorite parts, the girls are so absorbed in the magic.  L usually tried to play it cool but couldn’t help herself.  A dove in for hugs and stories.  And E was especially entertaining with a nonstop oration of “Did you know?” (“did you know we have your movie? “did you know I love your dress?” “did you know I can sing your song?”)  With some characters, we had met them before so the girls just enjoyed meeting them and talking to them.  With characters we had never met, they girls got their autographs to add to their photo album.  We have them sign on an index card that then slips into an album.  Across the spread, I include pictures with that character from each time we’ve met them.  It’s fun to see the girls get older through the pictures.  We played and celebrated until the girls were too tired to enjoy anymore.  We spent a few minutes shopping and then returned to the condo at midnight.

On Friday, they did sleep in, much later than I would have guessed actually.  So we got a good night’s sleep, dashed through a breakfast of mickey waffles and headed out to the Animal Kingdom.  Our first stop was to meet Pocahontas, one of the few characters left of their “must meet” list.  (Last October we met as many characters as we possibly could for an impressive record of 32! But it did not include Pocahontas or Jasmine, and the girls have begged to meet them ever since.)  So we were off to a great start.  We meet Mickey and Minnie, who were dressed for the holidays!  While waiting in line, the girls drew pictures and then gave them to Mickey and Minnie who made a big fuss and delighted over the little pictures and letters.  We rode the safari and saw so many incredible animals.  I love watching the girls faces light up, it’s the most priceless part of these adventures.  We ate the picnic lunch we had brought with us before continuing onto a few more rides and shows.  L and E braved the roller coaster with husband, kid sister and her fiancée.  E reported that it was “kind of scary but not fast enough”.  And that the yeti was “scary but kind of cute!”  Meanwhile A, Grammy, Papa and I got a snack and checked out a gift shop.  Each day the kid found a penny press machine so A did that for her sisters while we were waiting.  Grammy’s favorite show is the Festival of the Lion King and it really was so impressive with acrobatics and dancing and the kid favorite part, they got invited to join the parade, dancing and shaking music makers with the monkeys.  But the end of the day, the kids were exhausted.  Kid sister and finacee went back to their apartment since they had to work early the next morning.  And we headed back to the condo, stopping at an on-site restaurant for dinner.  It included a kid arcade and play area which the girls loved!  The food was good but incredibly slow.  And eventually we were all tucked into bed again.

On Saturday husband made his infamous “daddy eggs” and we had a leisurely morning at the condo.  We spent a few hours at the pool.  Grammy and I sat poolside while Papa and husband played with the girls.  They did laps around the waterslide and raced around the lazy river over and over.  They played pretend mermaid games and dubbed Papa the shark.  They had a blast trying to steal his hat and balancing on the inner tubes we brought from our condo.  They would have stayed forever but we brought them home for lunch and after a quick round of showers, headed to Disney again.  We went to one of the resorts, eager to see their famous gingerbread creation.  An enormous, beautifully decorated Christmas tree stood in the lobby next to a near life size gingerbread house with incredible details.  After marveling over that, we briefly wandered the gift shop, dreaming and wishing.  Then we took the monorail to Epcot where Papa and Husband were waiting (since they couldn’t park at the resort hotel).  We had planned to meet kids sister as soon as she got off work and hoped finacee would be able to get off a few hours early as well, but they weren’t so lucky.  They ended up working longer than anticipated.  But we didn’t mind.  We sat on some park benches outside the entrance and played countless games of “duck, duck, goose”, told stories and explored.  It was still early evening with plenty of time to play when kid sister and finacee were able to join us.  (Between Grammy’s injured foot, my pregnancy and the overstimulated attention of the kids, these half days were perfect for us.  Full of fun and yet, at least one kid was unfortunately tired enough to tears every night.)  We headed for the back of the park to meet Jasmine and Aladdin, checking off that last high priority for the girls.  The girls were in awe and Aladdin had fun teasing them about flying so far without a carpet.  We had dinner, bringing plates from three different countries and then wandered some shops, unable to resist.  We took in a few favorite rides but the girls were so tired, they didn’t last long.  They got to watch the fireworks and then we had to tell kid sister and finacee goodbye since we wouldn’t get to see her again.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast and went swimming again.  This time I joined the kids in the pool and we had so much fun.  We spent the afternoon reluctantly packing and then split the party up.  Papa, Grammy and E were to stay one more night while Husband, L, A and I started our journey home.  We had a quick dinner at the airport and spent the flight doing projects from their new activity bag and watching movies.  After the two flights and the familiar drive, we got home about 1 am.

Meanwhile, Papa, Grammy and E got to spend one more evening with kid sister and finacee.  They went to her apartment to drop off Christmas presents and spent the evening at the newly remodeled Downtown Disney (apparently now “Disney Springs”).  They had dinner at the Indian Jones hanger bar, went shopping and had ice cream sundaes from the Ghiradelli store (that was E”s favorite part).  And then they came home on Monday, little E delighting in her one-on-one time with her grandparents while husband had to work on Monday and the older girls and I eased back into the chaos here.

Such an amazing trip.  We are so lucky that we get to go so often, both to see kid sister (our favorite part) and enjoy the Disney magic while the girls are at such a perfect age.