At Christmas we celebrate Christ

This is a quote from our youth pastor talking to his children. "On your birthday we celebrate you, at Christmas we celebrate Christ."

So how do you celebrate Christ at Christmas?

We have an Advent tree. We do the ABC's of Advent. A is for angel . . . we have one for each night as we count down to Christmas. I also have the ornaments to use it as a Jesse Tree. That's when we discuss Biblical history, counting down the days until the birth of Christ. It was originally created as a Jesse Tree, but the DC were so little at the time that they really didn't understand it. I was given the ABC's of Christmas that year. So we've done the ABC's ever since. But now, all four have learned their ABC's and since the oldest are teenagers they're more than old enough to trace the Biblical history of the Messiah.

I also decorate with nativities. Of course we have the standard Christmas tree, and lights, and stockings . . . but I also have 15 nativities (give or take a few). Two of them are specifically for the DC. They get to play with the figures and act out the Christmas story.

And we read. We have three advent stories that we alternate reading every year. This year we're reading Jotham's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide. We've read Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels (both also by Arnold Ytreeide) on alternating years. The characters and their stories all interconnect which adds interesting depth to the stories.

For gifts the DC each get three gifts, to represent the three gifts from the wise men. They also get one gift from Santa and a stuffed stocking. I like seeing Santa's reaction each year as my DC sit on his lap and politely ask for one thing. He normally looks at them "Is that all?"

I know there's a lot more we could do. Especially with the social aspect and reaching out to others. So what do you do to celebrate Christ?

Catching Up

For all of you who got used to my frequent posts after Disney I'm sure you've been disappointed at my lack of postings. Well, I have been posting, I've just been hiding them on you. I had a mess of photos that had stories to be told, so they are now posted - all under the month of October. Click on October over there on the right, and you'll get to see all of my "new to you" old posts. Enjoy :o)

Disney - favorite photos

Just when you thought I was done with Disney! This is simply a compilation of favorite photos that I took while on vacation. They may, or may not have made it in here before.

We start with the cousins. Don't they look happy?

Next, I think Grandma may look as excited as the grandkids.

Then, the butt shot. I don't know why this one is a favorite.

It's just capturing that one moment in time.

Then, youngest DD just rocking out while beating the bongos.

Catch that hip action.

I thought this shot on the Astro Orbitor was cool because it looks like they're really flying.

I enjoyed the DC's silliness in this shot.

Then, my beautiful daughters.

I call this one "Everyone can be a princess."

If I had gotten all 4 DC in this one,

this would have had a shot at being our Christmas card.

Another moment in time captured on film.

I believe this is my absolute favorite.

Hula-hooping on Main Street.

Disney - Epcot

Our last Theme Park day at Disney was spent in Epcot. The girls and I had breakfast scheduled with the princesses in Norway. The two youngest wore princess costumes (it was helpful to have Halloween the week before going to Disney). Youngest DD chose Sleeping Beauty and middle DD wanted Mulan, the closest I could find was an Empress costume from Pirates of the Caribbean. (And just why can't girls sized 10/12 dress like princesses? Is there a rule stating that it's only for little girls???) DH and DS had an early breakfast scheduled at the Contemporary, so the girls and I got up and took our time dressing. I did their hair. Braids, french braids and buns; if I had brought hair glitter I could have faked a Bibbity Bobbity Boutique hairdo. And after all that I didn't even take a picture! We took so much time that the guys were back from their breakfast before we ever left! (So much for getting out early again!). We headed off.

Just inside the entrance to the park we stopped and took some pictures. (Actually we were waiting for others to catch up to us.) We had a Disney photographer take our picture when friends of ours from church walked into the park. (We knew they were also there that week, but didn't formally arrange to spend any time together.) The photographer then took a magic picture with the girls. All five of them held their hands out together, and when I got to see them online there was Tinker Bell standing on their hands. I haven't decided what to purchase yet, but I'll try to remember to post it if I get it. Time was drawing close for breakfast, so we took off across the park. As we're rushing along a cast member calls out "Heading to the Princess breakfast?" "Yes," I call, "Are we going the right way?" "Yeah, just go . . . Are you going on any rides after breakfast?" "Yes, we're planning on being in the park all day." "Oh, then you want to take this bridge. It's a magical short cut." I looked at the bridge indicated, knowing that it was technically out of our way (I memorize maps and directions). We headed across the bridge. In the middle we could see several cast members. I was a little excited "We're going to get dream fast passes!" I thought. We got to the middle, a big cheer went up from the cast members, and we got . . . Dream mouse ears. Yep. Mouse ears. Okay, so now we were a bit late for breakfast, we rushed off. Oh! Before I forget (again), we forgot our autograph books. Yep, the much looked forward to Princess breakfast and we forgot the books. We had our little princess calendars (I found them at Office Max - and we had the princesses sign their "picture". Aurora had looked through them the night before with youngest DD saying things like "Oh, I remember posing for that picture!" "There's my friend, Belle!"), but Mulan wasn't in the calendar. So we had Mulan sign our mouse ears. So how much do you think they'd go for on Ebay?

We arrived at breakfast. The median age of the guests (okay, of the children) was maybe 4. My girls felt a little old. We got inside and they had a formal picture taken with Belle. (Why Belle? We're in "Norway", Belle is French - she's actually one of the princesses whose heritage is known. If there's a Scandinavian princess I would think it's Aurora or Cinderella - after all, they're the blondes. Does every one's clothes just look better with her bright yellow gown?)

Breakfast was a buffet of pastries and I'm not sure what that was. With a family style dish of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and was there something else? The princesses featured at breakfast were Aurora, Snow White, Jasmine and Mulan. The later meals have Ariel and Cinderella replacing the last two. (I guess because Jasmine and Mulan can be found in their "countries"?)

After breakfast we headed back to the front of the park to meet up with DH and DS. And there were our friends from church! They hadn't been hanging out together, but they had been exploring the same attractions at the same time. We all had Fast Passes for Soarin (we had grabbed them after meeting up and before heading to breakfast), so we opted to hang out together until we could use our Fast Passes. We went to The Seas, did the Nemo attraction and Turtle Talk. The we went Soarin! Our friends had been on it before, so they knew to ask for the front row (that way there's no-ones feet hanging in front of you ruining the effect). The 10 of us filled the entire row. The kids liked it. It's not necessarily my favorite. I'm scared of heights. And the first row is, well, the top row. And when you feel like you're tilting as you soar - that's not an illusion, the rows of seats do tilt. The smellerators - well - I don't know if mine was broken, but instead of smelling something, like oranges, I just got a whiff of chemicals that smelled like, well, chemicals. The ride was okay, but I do not LOVE it. And while I would probably go on it again if we ever go back to Disney, I did not want to get back in line and ride it again and again.

At this point we parted from our friends. The girls and I headed back to the hotel for a break and DH and DS had to rush to keep their lunch reservations at Le Cellier (that I had forgotten about). They gave rave reviews of their lunch and if we ever do Epcot again I want to eat there!

We spent about 2 hours back at the room. Everyone just needed some down time. We'd been rushing all over parks every day and everyone was just tired and cranky. I didn't think I could enjoy Epcot with whiny children. We headed back to Epcot at 6. And by the time we got there my youngest was already whining. Gee, this is going to be a great evening! I checked out the stroller rentals to get prices. I smiled sweetly and asked if they were at all discounted since it was so late in the day. Nope. I pleaded with DH. $15 to save my sanity on our last night in Disney really wasn't too much, was it? He reluctantly agreed. I walked back to the stroller rental - and this is where I got my dream granted. The same cast member saw me and said "Let me take care of you." She rang up the stroller for (drum roll) nothing! "Have a great evening!" It wasn't a dream Fast Pass, it wasn't a night in Cinderella's castle, it wasn't anything that's been advertised, but it was the best dream possible to be granted for me! Youngest DD was thrilled to be able to sit and ride. I was thrilled to be able to ignore any further whinyness, and to have a place to plop my stuff. We took off for a walk around the world.

Epcot is beautiful. The flowers are gorgeous, landscaping is impeccable . . . and at night - well, you can't see any of it. Lighting in the evening is lousy. Our walk around the world was really fast because you can't really see anything. We did point out France to the DC. France is where DH wanted to propose to me. Seventeen years ago on July 3rd, DH (actually DB - or Dear Boyfriend at that time) took me to Epcot my very first time. We didn't spend any time at all in the front of the park, I just remember walking around the worlds. We ate in France. I can remember the waiters walking by and looking expectantly at our table. I excused myself to powder my nose for a long time just in case he wanted to place a ring somewhere on the table. We ate dinner, had dessert, and . . . nothing. Turns out he had planned to propose, but the ring wasn't ready in time. He proposed the next morning as the sun rose over the beach, just a few miles from his parents' home. So we pointed out France to the DC and told them the whole story. (We'll always have France, Dear).

We ate dinner in Morocco at Restaurant Marrakesh. I checked out menus prior to the trip and figured the DC could handle Shish Kebobs for a meal, and at least experience something a bit more exotic than usual. I warned youngest DD that there wouldn't be chicken nuggets and hamburgers like usual. The children's menu? Chicken nuggets, hamburgers or Moroccan Meatballs over pasta with tomato sauce. The wisest choice of my evening? Mint tea to drink. The poorest choice? Eating in Morocco. It's meals like this that remind me why we don't use cinnamon as a spice for our meat dishes in the US. Yuck. My palate is not ready to deal with cinnamon as anything other than a dessert spice. We did get to enjoy the belly dancers. Okay, one belly dancer. And we were seated against the wall, so we actually got to see her from the back. So we saw dancing, but not much belly. I don't feel that I experienced much for my last day, so Epcot is one park that I would like to spend a couple of days in again - without the DC!

Disney - Magic Kingdom

Our Magic Kingdom day at Disney started with a Grand Gathering breakfast. Now a Grand Gathering consists of a party of 8 or more - this is the one activity we chose to do as a Grand Gathering. Our breakfast started at 9, which was interesting, since the park opened at 9. We got to go in early! It's kind of fun to see the streets deserted. We got a group photo taken with the castle in the background and no-one else! The kids got to dance with Donald, meet many characters, and get photos taken with Mickey.

After breakfast we got to do the FastPass line at the Philharmagic show, then we spent some time in Fantasyland. Grandma rode the carousel with us.

We headed for Tomorrowland and did a few rides there. We had lunch at Casey's Corner, where they sell Cracker Jacks! (Not good for peanut-free people, but good news for my FG friends). Then we were in prime position for the parade. Younger DDs got to hula-hoop while waiting.

We headed to Adventureland after the parade and did a few favorites there.

We took in the roller coaster in Frontierland just as it was getting dark.

Then we hopped the train, rode it all the way around for a little rest and got off in Toontown. Youngest DD wanted to see the princesses, and oldest DD wanted to meet the new fairies. (Apparently Tinker Bell is very popular with the teenage crowd right now). The line was an hour long, and they decided to wait.

We wound up in the back of the park for the fireworks display (not recommended). Then had dinner at the Crystal Palace. And we got to leave the Magic Kingdom after everything had closed and there was no-one on the streets!

Disney - The Best and Worst of Meals

Hands down, our favorite meal was the O'hana Breakfast at the Polynesian. Chef Brett came to our table and talked with me extensively, then he disappeared into the kitchen to read labels. After a half hour he came out and discussed what he could make for us. Since o'hana means family the meal is cooked and served family style - one big dish of food. So everyone ate FG :o)

Initially we were served fresh cut fruit, we finished two helpings of that waiting for the chef. They also served a passionfruit juice that everyone at the table loved. (I'm thinking Looza Passionfruit Nectar mixed with Pineapple juice would come mighty close to it). Then Chef Brett made scrambled eggs and bacon, fried potatoes, Mickey Mouse shaped waffles (GFCF - read clean) with real butter and maple syrup, and he made biscuits for us! (The first bread that was approved for the DC to eat!) We were happy and stuffed after our hour and a half there. For entertainment we got to see Lilo and Stitch, along with Mickey and Pluto. Pluto acted just like a dog and actually made me miss NutMeg! They also paraded around the room every hour. Youngest DD enjoyed that.

Please note: For anyone doing a sit-down meal at Disney, it will take at least an hour. If you have food allergies and need to talk with the chef, add another half hour to the time allotted.

Our worst meal at Disney came that same night. We had reservations at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney after Cirque De Sole. Now Planet Hollywood is not Disney owned, but they participate in the meal plan and I chose the place because they had "normal" food like spaghetti, I thought the DC would like that. To start with, they didn't seem to know what to do with our reservation. This is the only place we went to where the reservation really seemed to mean nothing. "We should be able to seat you in an hour. Oh, you have a reservation. We'll see what we can do. Maybe 45 minutes." The table they finally seated all 8 of us at would comfortably seat 4 - it was smaller than my kitchen table! I have never been in a Planet Hollywood, so I was not prepared for the blaring music. It was seriously so loud we couldn't hear the waitress. My sensory sensitive child had a meltdown due to the noise once we got seated. And no, they don't sell earplugs - we asked.

Disney - Hollywood Studios

Our second full day in Disney was spent at Hollywood Studios. We were scheduled for an extremely early lunch (because we reserved an early dinner time), so I thought we'd get up and be at the park when it opened since we were only eating toaster pastries in our room and didn't have to brave the food court for breakfast. Everyone else thought they'd sleep in. So we reached the theme park at least an hour later than what I had been hoping. We rented a locker just inside the gates because I didn't want to carry our coats around all day. $10 for a locker. You get $5 back when you turn in the key.

We were walking up the main street when we were asked to step to the side - a parade was coming. High School Musical 3! Youngest DD was thrilled! They danced on by and it took us maybe 5 minutes to realize they had stopped up the road and were putting on a performance.

We hurried up the street and tried to see over the crowd. DD got the best spot. I just held my camera above heads and snapped photos, I couldn't actually see much. Towards the end of the performance, youngest DD got bored, so we headed off to get FastPasses to Toy Story's Midway Mania. It was just before 11 in the morning and the passes were for 5:30 that evening.

Then we hurried off to our early lunch at the Sci-Fi Drive-In Theatre. The DC were thrilled to get milkshakes made with Edy's vanilla ice cream and whole milk. And for dessert, after their hamburgers and fries (fried in pure canola oil), they had, umm, Edy's Vanilla Ice Cream.

After lunch we met up with Grandpa and Grandma. We did the Muppet Vision 3-D, took pictures with Lighting McQueen, then the DC got to experience the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.

Here's a lovely shot of everyone waiting around while we stood in line for Prince Caspian. The girls and the guys split up, the guys went to see Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular while the girls went to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We finished earlier, so we went to see The Magic of Disney Animation. This is where we found The Incredibles signing autographs. We got in line to see Mickey and the girls took a picture with a cardboard cut-out of Wall-E.

Disney was starting to decorate for Christmas, so I thought I'd get a jump on our Christmas cards. I like the background, maybe I shouldn't have let the DC get in the photo?

We had dinner at Hollywood and Vine, a buffet. We chose this place because you get preferred seating for Fantasmic!, and Mama Melrose was booked. The chef came out and talked with me. and he walked me through the buffet line and showed me what they could eat. Then he made the DC their own chicken nuggets, and baked some gluten free rolls that were without preservatives. The butter was a margarine mix, so the chef walked over to the Brown Derby to get them some real butter. For dessert they had Edy's Vanilla Ice Cream. The chef added some strawberries on top. Why are there so many artificials in desserts? Really people, they can look just as good and taste even better without the petro-chemicals in them.

After dinner we hurried over to Toy Story Midway Mania to use our FastPasses. The FastPass line was almost an hour long! The attraction had closed down for two hours that afternoon and now the lines were filled with people using their FastPasses from all afternoon. There wasn't time to wait in line and still make it to Fantasmic!, so we walked over to Fantasmic! I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I didn't like it. I knew it was about Mickey defeating all the Disney villains, but I was expecting the normal villains from the movies we continually watch. The villains featured were from movies that I really haven't allowed my DC to see, such as: the demon from Hell in Fantasia (along with the floating dead souls), the priest from Hunchback of Notre Dame, the villain from Hercules (I can't even name him because it's a film I haven't watched). And the show was a bunch of movie clips all put together and projected on a wall of water. I guess I was expecting more live action, not movie clips. It was rather a disappointment after all the rave reviews I had heard from friends.

Our second full Disney day ended with the DC swimming back at the resort pool.

Disney - the second night

To continue our saga in excruciating detail - I think I planned our dinner quite well. The buses in Disney run from the resorts to the theme parks, and from the theme parks to the resorts, but not from resort to resort, and seldom from theme park to theme park. I chose Whispering Canyon Cafe for dinner after Animal Kingdom. So we boarded the bus headed to Wilderness Lodge.

Dinner was noisy and fun. We did the Hokey-Pokey, the DC ran hobby-horse races, and don't ask for ketchup! The chef came out and discussed our food allergies with us. She provided mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, burgers and grilled salmon for those with allergies. The rest of us tried the bar-b-que sampler. For dessert the DC had big bowls of ice cream.

After dinner we headed down to the dock and boarded a boat to the Magic Kingdom. There were Magic Hours that night and we intended to take advantage of them. We had the joy of being on the boat during the fireworks display - an awesome spot to be.

In Magic Kingdom we met up with Grandma and Grandpa and we headed to Tomorrowland. Youngest DD loved Space Mountain, but was scared by Stitch's Great Escape! I got a great picture of DD and DH on the Astro Orbitor. We didn't last the full amount of time allotted, but we returned happy and tired.

Disney's Animal Kingdom

For our first full day at Disney, we chose to go to Animal Kingdom. A little background first - DH grew up in Florida. He used to take dates to Disney World. (Must be nice, huh?) He's taken me to Disney a few times. He knows the Magic Kingdom, he knows Epcot, he's even slightly familiar with Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM), but he's never been to Animal Kingdom, none of us have been there. So we chose Animal Kingdom for our first day. (We also chose it because it closes at 5 and Magic Kingdom had extra magic hours that night so we planned on Park Hopping).

Our plan for "attacking" the theme parks was to enjoy the here and now. We weren't going to kill ourselves trying to see everything and do everything. We wanted to enjoy the experience and create memories that didn't involve screaming parents and whining kids. Well, that was the plan anyway.

We started the day by experiencing the mass confusion of a way too busy food court at our value resort. This helped to result in a late departure for the park. Outside of the gates we found several characters waiting to sign autographs. My girls are really into this, so we stood in line and got autographs from Pluto, Meeko and Timon. Then we actually made it into the park.

We grabbed maps and decided to head to "Africa" because we really wanted to do the safari ride. We looked at some animals and took a few pictures along the way. Youngest DD found some mouse ears that she wanted (how did she know we would be willing to buy souvenirs?) We finally reached Africa and got fastpasses. We decided to take the train ride to Rafiki's Planet Watch to kill some time. We didn't know it stopped and you get off. We wandered around the conservation area, the kids did a child activity on bugs, got more autographs (Rafiki and Jiminy Cricket), saw a talking recycling can (the yellow thing in the photo) and rode the train back to Africa.

Then it decided to rain. Actually rain in Florida means sudden downpour - run for cover. We ducked into the FastPass line and hoped it would stop before we got on the ride. It did stop and we enjoyed our safari ride. We got to see the baby elephant who's now about 3 months old.

We were all hungry for lunch by the time the ride ended, so we headed for the nearest Quick Service lunch. There I found that not all places offer a separate child's menu, and all available desserts contain artificials. We got burgers, chips and Cokes. We retired to some tables near the back of the seating area. During lunch we realized that we were right next to an autograph signing area. The girls got in line and got autographs from Baloo and King Louie. We also found that we were right next to the "break room" for Baloo and King Louie. They passed right by our table when they left to take their break.

When they came out again (yes, we were still eating). Baloo walked up and smothered DS in a big bear hug. Then Baloo reached out and swiped DS's chips. This began quite a time of hilarity as the cast member scolded Baloo, he returned the chips, tried to swipe them again, turned around and begged us for chips after every autograph signing, youngest DD gave him her chips which he then hid in King Louie's mouth, then on a shelf out of sight of the cast member. . . I guess you had to be there. Youngest DD got very excited about every Baloo we ran into after that.

We wandered over to "Asia" after lunch. We banged on some drums. DH lost his sun glasses and went back to search for them. We had to search for a bathroom. Wandered probably isn't the word I'm looking for - meandered is more like it. We walked through the Maharajah Jungle Trek, taking a lot of time looking at the tigers. At the very end of the Trek was a bird aviary - I told DH we'd walk through it in 2 minutes. It was 20 minutes later before we got out of there.

Youngest DD saw a brightly colored bird - the golden pheasant - she asked why it was so colorful. "Well, in the bird world," a young guide told us (at this point he touched oldest DD on the shoulder), "You might want to take note of this. In the bird world it's up to the male bird to impress the female." He spent the next 20 minutes giving oldest DD a personal tour, showing her every bird possible, and in general, trying to impress her. We later dubbed him a red-breasted Floridian and teased oldest DD for the rest of the week.

Our final stop in Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest. Youngest DD LOVED it! Oldest DD, middle DD and I didn't go on it at all. I took pictures of probably 10 coasters to make sure I got them, then they called on the cell phone, they were just getting on! I did manage to get their coaster in one of the next four pictures. That ended our day at Animal Kingdom. We headed out for dinner after that, and I think I'll save that for another post.