Christmas 2018

Christmas... the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas Eve looked like this...

Great company + yummy Food.

Family traditions like Chimes,

and acting out the Nativity with cute cousins.

Later that night, opening of the PJs.

(this year they were more like workout clothes, because we have too many PJs that never get worn.) haha

We sure missed having our Saige home with us for Christmas!

Christmas morning was filled with all the familiar excitement.

Jadyn made EACH of her sisters a quilt!

And Lydia always comes up with the most creative gifts.

She searches pinterest by herself, this is Kenna's candy sleigh. :)

One day she saw this book and wanted to get it for her daddy so bad.

It was kinda pricey and I wasn't sure that she would actually take the time to write on every page.

But gosh what a gem.

The cutest thing I've ever seen!

When I saw this page, it made me VERY happy.

Cuz guess what we gave them for Christmas?

A trip to China for Spring Break!

I had set up a treasure hunt with one gift after another that lead them to find out that's where we were going.  As you can imagine they were surprised!  And excited! and confused!

We spent time with Grandma and Papa + Cousins that afternoon.

What an awesome Christmas + Christmas Season it was!!

Disney World December 2018

For several weeks starting at the end of November Saige begged me to come visit her in Florida.

I kept telling her no, I couldn't fit it in.

She wanted me to see Disney World in it's glory... all decked out for Christmas.

AND she had six free Park Hopper Tickets that were going to go to waste by December 20th.

We had been there with the whole family and the Astle's only 8 weeks before.

I wasn't sure that I wanted more time at Disney World.

But... at a savings of $169/ticket per day...

I couldn't pass it up.  Plus we weren't going to have Saige home for Christmas with us and she wanted her mommy.

So I made a split second decision and decided I would come the next week.

I used sky miles for my ticket.

Kenna and her friend Maloree bought their own plane tickets.

Saige got us a killer deal at the Disney Resort Coronado Springs (that included airport transfers and transfers between the parks for $125/night).

So we went.

And had a BLAST!!

The three of us left December 16th.

Kenna had a few very upset friends that she didn't pick them...

and I had two not so happy girls at home, who ended up being very good sports.

 

We had a direct flight with no delays.

Got right on Disney's Magical Express,

and arrived at Coronado Springs, where we were greeted by our happy Saige!

She's so cute.

I've missed her.

Her personality and positive spirit make the world a better place!

We had a reservation that night at "Beaches Diner" at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club.

We explored a few of the resorts around.

Ate Yummy Ice Cream @ Ample Hills Creamery.

Then headed off to bed in preparation for or big day.

We woke up bright and early, stopped by the Polynesian to see Pluto (and ride the monorail haha)

and headed to Magic Kingdom.

What a glorious place, I can't help smiling inside and out when I see that castle!!

We lined up early to speed walk to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train @ the 9 am opening.

It was awesome to walk right on!

We made good use of our fastpasses both days and hurried through all the things we wanted to do at Magic Kingdom.

That included several stops for yummy snacks and meals of course!

Mid-day we headed over to Epcot.

Saige's friend Ben joined us for a bit before he headed to work.

Then back to Magic Kingdom for Fireworks and more fun.

 It was a magical day!

The next day wasn't quite as magical to start with.

We had stopped to get our tickets for this day yesterday and found out that Saige didn't have 6 days free... only 3.

So I was stressing about having to buy tickets, when we never would have come if we had to buy tickets...

Poor Saige was stressed, she was texting all her cute friends asking them if they had any extra they weren't going to use.  Annie did... and said she would meet us @ 11 at Animal Kingdom to get us in (she had to enter with us.)

We REALLY wanted to go early... like be there by 8 am.

But we were grateful just to go, and had reconciled the idea that we wouldn't be riding Pandora that day.  So it was a miracle that later in the day I secured 5 fastpasses for Pandora (which had a 3 hour wait time at the time we walked through the fastpass line).  I had SEARCHED for more than a month multiple times a day when we were preparing for our October trip and had NEVER seen even one Pandora fastpass pop up!  So had did we get five?!?

Thanks to Saige + Annie!

Our second day was just as magical as the first!

 

Kenna was STILL terrified of the Dinosaur ride...

 We grabbed one of the fastpasses for Saige's roommate/bestie/soul sister Kayla.

Saige called her and told her to get over to the park and ride it with us.

(and isn't that awesome that they've been able to do that for four months?!?)

Kayla's a sweetheart, so glad we got to spend some time with her!

We all got along so well.

Thanks for bring cute Maloree Kenna!

 Around 4 PM we were off to Hollywood Studios.

 

It was a positively fabulous day.

The four of us are ALL so glad we made this happen.

Disney and Christmas are two of my very favorite things.

So combine Disney + Christmas and it was magnificent! (heart eyes).

We slept great that night.

Headed to Disney Springs for a bit the next morning and then were off to the airport for our flight home.

Thanks so much for having us Saige.

She has had about the dreamiest experience she could have imagined working at Disney World.

She worked hard... like lots and lots of hours.

But played super hard too,

made friendships for a lifetime,

and followed her heart.

I hope you never stop following your heart Saigie!!