BooMama's Tour of Homes

It's that time again ... and I'm three days later than I intended to be. I'm also not as thorough as I intended to be. This Christmas season started with a bang for me, then hit a lull ... and now, has wholloped me in the head with the fact that there are only three days left! But, a few of you have mentioned that you would like to see some of our decorations, so here it is !!!

Here's our front door. We actually have lights outside, but - to be completely honest - this is the coldest night of the year (so far) and I wasn't interested in huffing it out to the sidewalk to get a picture. So, let's just start with the door!


This is the tree in our Dining Room. Don decorated this one on his own. He really should do this professionally during the holidays. He has a great eye for this type of thing.


This is my little Christmas Village. It's really gotten the shaft since we moved to Texas. In Tennessee, we had it on the mantle in the Living Room. We had all the little accessories (including battery-powered lights on the houses, a pond, etc.) - it was really "Christmas-y". Now, it gets thrown on the entry table as a side thought. In fact, we didn't even unpack it last year. So, it's going on Craigslist on December 26. I hope it finds a good home.


This is our tree in our Family Room. It holds all of our family ornaments and things that we all love, especially ornaments that the kids make themselves! This year, Don added the red poinsetta's and he made the topper! (Notice that I haven't wrapped yet. The only presents under the tree are from Aunt Tempa!)


This is one of my favorite ornaments. It goes in the center every year!


This is one of those "much better in person things", but I love that I am married to someone who can look at the top of our shelf and come back with something that totally fits and only costs 75-cents! The jug and the mirror live there 365 days a year - the jar with ornaments from Wal-Mart appeared via Don during a commerical break from Boston Legal.


This is our mantle in the Family Room. The garland is lit although the picture doesn't show that very well. It looks gorgeous when the candles are lit, but again - I'm doing this quickly :)


This is the best part - the lights on the playset. The kids LOVE it. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but there are lights inside the "fort" so that the kids can go in at night and play.

* The kids have a Christmas Tree in their Gameroom. I'll take a picture tonight and post it. They both fell asleep on the couch tonight watching ABC Family channel's "12 Days of Christmas". We left them on the couch to sleep. I didn't want to risk waking them up with the flash.

So, now that you've checked out our house, head on over to BooMama's Tour of Homes. It's so fun to see what everyone has posted! Get ready ... it's addictive :)

Polar Express Day

This made my heart smile!

Today was pajama day in Kindergarten. The kids were able to bring pillows, blankets, and a stuffed animal. They were going to eat gingerbread cookies, drink hot chocolate and watch The Polar Express.

I wish I was in Kindergarten ... what a perfect day :)

(Thanks to my friend Brenda, the room mom, for sending me this great picture!)

Hysterical

I had to blog about this picture today. To me, it's the funniest of our whole trip. We stood in a short line to pull on the sword. It's important to note that everyone in front of us was a child. I'm sure that these kids saw this giant of a man and thought "surely he'll be able to get the sword out of the stone".

... on the other hand, perhaps I should have taken the picture from the other direction. They might have been thinking "Look how hard he's pulling on that sword. Should we tell him that it's not real?"

We're Back

We're back from Disney. I can almost feel my feet again ... more on our trip later, just know - it was a success!!!

Last night, we decided to order pizza, take it easy, and rest.

We got settled in with the pizza and Piper came down from the gameroom saying that she and Avery needed "the cheese". I sent it with her and asked that she bring it back down when she was finished. She did, and then went and got a spoon from the kitchen. I didn't think much about it, but did mention to Don that I felt like there was a lot of cheese gone.

At 8:00 PM, Don called up to the kids and neither responded. They were asleep. They had gotten pillows and blankets, made a little nest on the couch and were O-U-T!

Here's what we found on their table ...



... classic.

Trip Plans

I don't have good packing pics yet, so place that post on hold ... What I do have is our full agenda. This is gonna be fun!!!!

Saturday:
Fly, land, blah blah blah
Watch the Christmas parade (they taped earlier in the day, this is the second run)
Chef Mickey's for dinner (We'll meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald Duck)
Come back for the Wishes Fireworks and SpectroMagic parade - LOVE this parade!!!

Sunday:
Animal Kingdom
Jingle Jungle Parade
Whispering Canyon for dinner - this was one of our favorite meals last year

Monday:
Ohana for breakfast (We'll meet Lilo, Stitch, Pluto and Minnie)
Disney Hollywood Studios
Party Parade

Tuesday:
Magic Kingdom
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Cinderella Castle (Last year, Piper was Cinderella - this year, we're doing Snow White. Also, Avery is getting the boy version of whatever they do. I think it involves a lot of gel and an airbrushed Mickey head.)
Cinderella's Royal Table for lunch
Dreams Parade

Wednesday:
Epcot

Thursday:
Pirate Cruise for Avery and Piper (Wait until you see the cute shirts I'm making for the kids!) Oh, and this is a secret! The kids don't know about it.
Epcot again
Coral Reef for dinner

Friday:
Magic Kingdom
Dreams parade
The Wave (new restaurant in the Contemporary) for dinner

Saturday:
Crystal Palace for breakfast (meet Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet)
Magic Kingdom
Dreams Parade
Wishes Fireworks
SpectroMagic Parade again!

Sunday:
Shopping at Downtown Disney
Lunch or Dessert at the new Dinosaur Resturant
Cry - weep - sob ... as we head back to the airport at 4:00 PM

Pray for a great bounceback deal. My heart already wants to make a fourth trip and I'm not even done with my third one yet!!!

Disney Prep

I've been reading about "The Baggallini Messenger Bag" for years on the Disney message boards. They are supposed to be the deal for traveling to Disney World. They run about $45, and I had a $20 gift certificate to e-bags.com, so I decided to give them a shot. I decided to buy lime, because everyone knows that all die-hard Disney fanatics wear lime. Well, let me preface by saying that when Baggallini says lime - they mean LIME!

Well, I got the bag preliminarily packed last night ... here's what I've got so far:

The bag - front

The bag - back

Back pocket - I don't have anything in here yet. I think I'll use it for my phone and wallet.

Front pocket - packed with wet wipes.

Front middle pocket unzipped

In the bottom of the front pocket - Hand sanitizer, chapstick, and face sunscreen

Little Pocket #1 - Tylenol, Advil, and Rolaids

Little Pocket #2 - More hand sanitizer and earplugs (Piper hates the sound of exploding fireworks)

Little Pocket #3 - Kleenex and chewable Pepto (out of the box in a snack sized Ziploc bag - I cut out the dosage info and stuck it in the bag). Please say "compulsive" on the count of 3.

All the meds in the back area. Excedrin (Don is prone to Migranes), Kids Chewable Pepto, Gold Bond, Immodium, and Excedrin Back and Body.

There's a little elastic thing perfect for holding a Sharpie which we'll need for all of the character autographs. We use a retractable Sharpie so we don't have to worry about caps. However, it occurred to me last night that it could possibly "turn on" without me knowing it, so I wrapped it in a snack bag!

Back area - 3 extra Sharpies, Kids Sunglasses, and shower caps for Piper. She's getting her hair done at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique on Tuesday. Should we hit rain at some point, her "do" won't get ruined.

I'll add here that we are not medicine people. We rarely take medicine, however, I'm not going on a vacation that we saved for all year and having someone not enjoy every magical moment because they don't feel good. So we stock up!

Tomorrow, I'll do an installment on how we pack our suitcases :)

I swear this will be my last post about Britney ...

... after today, I will only post about Disney World. (4 days).

Love the new CD ... buy it. It's great.

Also, I'm going to her concert on March 30 at the Toyota Center. The Pussycat Dolls are opening for her. Incredible.

Love it, Love it.