Certainly I'm not a truly seasoned parent, as I'm still navigating my way through parenthood with smaller kids, and haven't even been tested with a teenager yet. I sitll have a six year old. He still wants me to read him bedtime stories, he still believes in Santa.. but this week I got a great big 'life is moving way too fast' smack in the face moment. On Saturday (I will get to our awesome day in a minute) we went to Hollywood Studios to see the lights and have the 'snow' fall. A Disney Christmas day is a tradition for us, and every year Hayden is mystified by the 'snow.' How could it be snowing in Florida?' he says. But he quickly forgets the logic and spins and smiles in the 'snow'. This year though? This year, as soon as the 'snow' began to fall, we all said 'Look Hayden it's snowing,' trying to get that same wonderful reaction we've gotten each year. And Hayden sticks his hand out, scrunches up his nose, looks in the sky and shrugs saying 'That's not snow. It's just bubbles, you guys'. It broke my heart. And so we move on to 'bigger' kid things. Which, isn't so bad. We can all go on rides together, we can all watch movies that aren't animated together and appreciate them. We can have more complex conversations. But, I will never again be able to tell any of my children 'it's snowing' in Florida and have them believe me. So sad. Enjoy it while you can, everyone.
This week has been very, very busy. December is always a busy month for us, but when you add in a trip to Ohio you lose a couple of days to get things done. And you add deadlines. Instead of shipping the Ainsworth family cookies, I have to finish them in time for my trip. Plus I have to round up all our winter gear, and set up whoever is staying here with clean clothes, dinner plans, and activities. (I don't HAVE to, but I like to-- to make it easier on Asa and whatever kids stay with him). Plus everyday life continues on, with chores, and meals,and homework and home school. Plus we currently still have the Chip Ship going on, and a new lesson about how a Bill becomes a Law. (It's kind of moving at a snails pace, but then, it is a long process). Then you add things like our Christmas activity punch board, and trying to get presents wrapped and an ongoing Elf moving around your house, and you've got a serious lack of down time.
Not complaining at all, just phew! Bus-y!
Anyway, We always plan a Disney Christmas day one weekend in early December to try and avoid the crowds. We were a little worried with the opening of the New Fantasy Land, and Test Track finally being open, but we decided we had to use this past Satuday to go, so I packed up picnic meals and we headed out after breakfast. I knew when we hit Downtown Disney at noon and some of the lots were already full it was going to be crowded, but we made the best of it. Our first stop was Disney Quest. And super cool alert: They added a new addition of Fix It Felix Junior Games! (It's from the movie Wreck It Ralph- if you have not seen it, go see it. It's awesome!)
After some Fix It Felix, we went on our normal journey throughout Dinsey quest. We played in the little kids games (which are some of my favorite. I love the bowling game!), the boys went on a white water rafting jouney, and Calib navigated the pirate ship, while the rest of us manned the cannons. Not a bad afternoon. We headed out shortly after 2, and had a picnic lunch in the car. (Thermos hot dogs totally work, which makes me happy because it's something other than PB and J!)
After lunch we drove over to Hollywood Studios. I could tell by the parking lot it was going to be packed, but that park usually handles the crowds well. It also has some of my favorite Christmas decorations with the 'trees' on the light posts. The boys were even all finally willing to go see the Beauty and the Beast stage show with me, too! (Can someone please tell me why you can't get your picture with Lumiere anywhere in any of the parks?!?)
We did stop by the Animation Studio, where the characters from the latest movie are often located. The line for Vanelope and Wreck it Ralph was longer than we are used to, but we happily waited in the 'theme' area to see them.
Then they were pretty funny, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. (Really if you have not seen the movie, go. For real.)
You know why else I love Disney? Because there are hidden secrets and surprises everywhere, and after having passes for years, we still haven't seen it all. This week we found a little nook in the Animation Studio where they have recreated a couple of animators offices, complete with figures and memorabilia from every Disney movie you can think of. We stood behind the glass for thirty minutes oohhing-and-ahhh-ing over it all. Then, we discovered a little room full of drawings and creations from the newest movie. A grown man, on a cell phone, walked into the room, and we just hear him yell 'DUDE! Oh my god. They Have Fix It Felix, Like a real Fix It Felix! You can play it! DUDE, like from the movie'. I love how Disney brings out the kid in everyone. Love, Love, Love it.
So after all that, I took Peyton and Hayden to the honey I shrunk the kids playground, while Calib and Asa went on the tower of terror. Then the boys all went on the Star Wars Ride (A motion sickness prone girl's worst nightmare), and I got to peruse the gift shops. Some of the cutest ornaments, and the best hat ever. I need a Beeker hat. I know I live in Florida, and I hardly ever wear hats. But I NEED one.
A quick stop at the Muppets and it was dark enough to head over to the lights. I had never been there before when they turned them on, that part was kind of awesome. I always love the lights- there's so many, it snows, and I get to hear Christmas Music blasting. Also, there are hidden Mickey's abound, which are also fun to look for. Considering they start putting up the lights in August, there's a lot of anticipation that comes when they finally light them!
It was about dinner time when we were done with the lights, Asa took the older boys to ride rock n roll roller coaster, since they had gotten fast passes, and I took Hayden to the car to get a head-start on dinner. We had to settle for sandwiches, but I had made some egg salad for those of us not interested in PB and J.
Our next stop was the Grand Floridian. They have the coolest life sized gingerbread house, and in my opinion the prettiest decorated resort on the Disney property. If you tell them you're going to look at the Gingerbread house they let you park there, and then you can take the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. That was our plan.
However, it was a poorly thought out plan. The second we stepped on the monorail, we knew it was going to be packed in the Magic Kingdom. We tried to power through, we really did. We saw Main Street just lined with thousands of people, waiting for the electrical light parade. We thought maybe with everyone at the parade we could encounter some shorter lines. But, that was not the case. It was an hour wait or more for everything. We walked back to the new Fantasyland, and held onto the boys for dear life hoping not to lose them in the sea of people. We quickly decided it wasn't worth it (yay for passes), and headed out. I really had not seen it that busy since I was there during Christmas week, when parks get closed due to capacity. It was insanity. At least we did get to see the park decorated for Christmas.
We took the monorail over to the Polynesian though, because we all had our hearts set on a Dole Whip. It was nearly impossible to get through all the crowd, and past the parade in the Magic Kingdom to get one, and we had heard of the promised land- aka self serve all you can eat Dole Whips- in the Polynesian. So for $4, we all shared a bottomless cup of pineapple ice cream goodness. At it was amazing.
After that we walked around and looked for some hidden mickeys, and admired the Christmas decorations before catching a bit of the fireworks show from the Grand Floridian. We got home a little after midnight. Exhausted, but thrilled with another awesome Disney Christmas Day.
Sunday was a relaxing day, we watched the Bucs (even though they lost in a heartbreaker), and got a lot of those pesky chores out of the way. Our dog, Phenom, had really injured himself on Friday and after checking with vet, he has some sort of muscle strain. We felt bad leaving him Saturday, though the vet said it was probably best for him to stay in his crate and rest) so we spent a lot of the day coddling him. He seems to be doing better now, but still has a noticeable small limp. Poor Puppy. Sunday night we made some Hot Chocolate and check out the Space Station. I signed up for the emails to 'spot the station' from NASA, and that was the first time I had gotten one that wasn't at a ridiculous hour. It's incredibly accurate, telling you where to look and for exactly how long. You should check it out.
Monday we started our 'I'm Just A Bill' lesson at home school. Asa and Peyton drew at random to decide who would be a Representative, and who would be a Senator. Then, we wrote the bill. Asa gets to be the Speaker of the House, because his dinner chair is closest to the Hopper. When Hayden got home from school he read the sign and said 'I'm Asa Waterstraut, I speak for the House'. Hayden doesn't know.
Our activity Sunday night was postponed because again Asa volunteered to work Sunday night to have Monday and part of Tuesday off work. So Monday we made cinnamon apple ornaments (which I hear made the house smell pretty good), and cinnamon sugar snowflake snacks. Basically frying biscuit dough and sprinkling it with cinnamon sugar. They were a hit.
Tuesday was cookie making day. For those of you who aren't familiar my mom's side of the family has cookies they've been making for years and years. Then on Christmas Eve, we bring all the cookies together and make assorted boxes to send out.
I am a terrible baker. I have many talents I am very crafty, I can cook for the most part. I consider myself pretty creative. But baking, I cannot do. I try and stick to the no-bake top of the stove cookies (not that I don't mess those up- I lost two bags of chocolate chips to disastrous occurrences), but somehow I always end up with the Oatmeal Scotchies. And somehow I ruin them in new ways every single year. This year though, I did make some of my peanut butter reindeer cookies. It's the one cookie I never screw up. I'm not sure how they will travel, but we'll see. I'm sure I can find someone to eat them even if the antlers break off. Also, FYI, date balls are disgusting. Yet my children like them, gross.
Anyway, they are packed up and ready to go, so I think I'm ahead of the game. Usually I don't get them done until the day before I leave, and I don't head out until Friday. Look at me not procrastinating!
Tuesday night was also one of my favorite Christmas activities so far. I had wrapped 15 random objects from around the house (think soup cans, baseball hats, and random toys), and numbered them. Then the boys had to write down and guess what the present was. Asa even guessed since he wasn't there when I wrapped them. They did surprisingly well.
Then at the end they got to unwrap them to see if they were right. They went around the table each getting a turn to open the presents. I surprised them with numbers 13, 14, and 15 though. Instead of random objects, they each got one small Christmas present. Calib opened his first, and was very confused. Peyton knew immediately what was going on and got very excited about his 'turn' to open his, and Hayden still hadn't caught on until he opened his and said 'wait.. is this for me?'
Wednesday after a very full day of home school, we celebrated 12/12/12 by making ambrosia (because it's National Ambrosia day, duh), and playing our 12 days of Christmas game in which the boys had 12 tasks and 12 seconds (or less) to complete each task. It was way more intense than I had pictured. Eat 12 mini marshmallows resulted in a whole lot of mini marshmallows all over my room, and close every door in the house in 12 seconds became a stampede. But they completed all their tasks.
Then we moved on to Hayden's school activity. He was sick last week and missed the hand out. I was sort of upset when he brought it home on Tuesday, since it was due before I got back- so it was just one more thing added to my list. But we worked on it tonight, following the instructions that it was supposed to be a family wreath created by the entire family. We used part of the optional materials- the leaves and the ribbon, all writing our favorite Christmas tradition down, and then all made hand prints with one red hand and one green hand. I'm going to see how expensive it would be to laminate it, because I think it's kind of cool and would like to save it.
In other ongoing Waterstraut events, we received the status on most all of our chips this week. We'll post the final results in next weeks blog. But, it's looking good for Calib whose chip arrived intact in Denver, Colorado. Thanks to everyone who participated, it was fun to see the results posted on facebook. We're looking forward to the last few.
The Elf is still hanging around causing trouble. He replaced all of our stockings with underwear (Hayden upon seeing this: 'He's in my underwear for no reason! He's using it as a parachute!'), tee-peed the Christmas tree, spent some time with grandma and grandpa, took a spin on the ceiling fan (all day long, Hayden said he needed the puke bucket), and went online to check out his own Facebook page.
Other note-worthy events:
Hayden upon coming home and seeing all the cookies on the counter: "Is this whats for dinner"
Upon wrapping presents, I noticed the cute ho-ho-ho wrapping paper I bought resembled a certain college. I was not pleased.
A spider on Hayden's magna-doodle turned into quite the crime scene.
Another reason they should teach Government in School:
Me: "And Peyton, who is in charge of the U.S Senate?"
Calib: "The Governor!"
Next Up: Sophs and Grace turn 9! And, if I survive the cold weather and having to wear socks, a blog about Ohio.
