A Christmas vacation

Back in April my sister mentioned to us that her and her family would be spending Christmas at Disney in Florida.  She told me she could get us a condo with them for the same week if we were interested in going.

Hubby and I thought about it and decided since we didn't get to go to the beach this summer that we would go.  This was completely new for us, we've never taken the kids anywhere for Christmas.  We have always been home, enjoying Christmas in our own house.  We've never even traveled to Ohio to be with family.

As time got closer and we started planning the trip we all got more and more excited.  The kids were a little apprehensive because they were unsure of where Santa would leave their presents.  Not to mention, they wanted to unwrap presents on Christmas day and have their things.  We finally got through to them that they would be able to get their presents after we got back home and they would be having so much fun they wouldn't want their presents on the trip.

We were pretty much right.  They had a great time.  It was a wonderful vacation and we hadn't been to Disney since 2005 so we were long overdue.

We are on our way....
 

We got to have 6 whole days at the parks.  We went to Animal Kingdom first.  I loved going at Christmas time because they had a Christmas tree at every park.

 

We did everything at Animal Kingdom that we could possibly do.  We rode most of the rides, went on the safari and enjoyed a couple great restaurants.

 

Our second day we went to Hollywood Studios.  

 

Zachary was so excited to see Mike from Monsters, Inc.

 

The coolest thing about Hollywood Studios is when it gets dark and they do The Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.  It was AWESOME! I could have watched the lights, dancing to Christmas music, all night.

 

Our 3rd day we went to Epcot.  Since we planned to do Epcot over 2 days, we spend the 1st day riding all the rides then the 2nd day going through all the countries.

 

My daughter was messing around with my camera and took this picture.  

 

The 4th and 5th days we spent at Magic Kingdom.  One of the days it rained so we were kept from doing a lot so it was nice we were able to do 2 days.  

My main mission at Magic Kingdom was to see Merida.

I stood in line for 45 minutes to see her.

 

She's my favorite!

 

 

We got to do a Character dinner with Piglet, Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.

 

The castle looked awesome with all the lights.  I watched every show and parade that was at Magic Kingdom for 2 days.  It's definitely my favorite part.

 

So, even though we had a great time; it was really weird being there over Christmas.  The parades had Santa at the end of them but it still didn't "feel" like Christmas.  We usually go to church and out to a nice restaurant for dinner on Christmas Eve, this year we ate dinner at Pizza Planet at Hollywood Studios.  

All in all, I wouldn't rule out a vacation to Disney at Christmas in our future.  We really did have a great time.