Snow Day

So, as you may have guessed, it doesn't snow in Beach Town. So we were all very excited when a local fun park brought in a bunch of snow for the day so that kids could go sledding. I have to say that when we first saw the pathetic little 24 square foot area covered in snow, we were a little skeptical about the fun factor, but Matt and Jackson had a blast sledding down the little hill. We topped the afternoon off with a few rides and some go-karting. Too cute.

Blog Alert: PostSecret

My obsession with Cakewrecks has not diminished, but I thought I would share another blog that I heart. The blog is called PostSecret and it provides a place for people to artistically and anonymously share their secrets with the world. I've already learned that I'm just about the last person on the planet to discover this website - it's won awards, spawned books, and clearly has quite a following. But if you haven't already stumbled across this yourself, check it out and I'll bet you will become as hooked as I am.

Christmas: Take Two

Because we had a trip to DisneyWorld planned for early December, we decided not to buy our tree until about 10 days before Christmas. Please learn from our experience: this is a TERRIBLE idea. We naively showed up at Lowe's ready to buy our normal 8 foot, reasonably priced beauty and found only pathetic looking, lopsided 6 footers. After roaming the aisles of trees for about 15 minutes in total disbelief, hoping that perhaps there was one lone high quality tree left, we finally settled on this little Charlie Brown tree:

Pathetic, right? Our only consolation was that it was majorly (but fairly!) discounted. We decided to let it "rest" overnight before decorating it, hoping that it might magically fill out over night. But the next morning brought an ominous surprise: the water was still filled to the top of the stand. The tree wasn't drinking ANYTHING. That night we cut another chunk off of the bottom of the tree and said a little prayer. The next morning, like a prisoner, the tree was still refusing water. We were expecting a houseful of guests for Christmas, so we decided to visit one of the notoriously overpriced tree lots, and found this little guy:

Totally worth it, right? Oh, and here's a really cool picture of Jackson decorating the tree with fireworks. Ok, my shutter just isn't fast enough to keep up with my two year old, but it's still pretty cool, right?

Merry Christmas!

At school this year, Jackson's class made a big list of what everyone wanted for Christmas. Jackson's wish was for a Fire Truck. Even though we had already done our shopping, we rushed out to Target and bought the biggest, shiniest fire truck we could find to put on the fireplace on Christmas morning.

A few days later, Santa came to visit his school. While we were walking over to see him, I said, "Jackson, are you going to ask Santa for a fire truck?" "No!" he answered, "I want a kite." "Ummm..what, baby? I thought you wanted a fire truck." "No, I want a kite," he said. When Santa asked what he wanted, he firmly said, "I want a kite!"

My dad and I drove down to the beach with me a few days before Christmas, and we managed to locate a kite (they're hard to find this time of year!). But on Christmas morning, Jackson just seemed confused. He kept asking, "Where my kite?" I can only imagine that he had envisioned the kite floating around the room on Christmas morning.
That didn't stop him from thoroughly enjoying his gifts. He couldn't open them fast enough, and had trouble waiting for everyone else to open theirs (and believe me, the vast majority were for him anyway!).

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

The Best Day to Visit the Zoo

After spending a long weekend in Disney, we were sick of huge crowds and lines. So we were pleasantly surprised to find that the best possible day to visit the zoo is actually Christmas Eve! We just about had the whole place to ourselves.

Jackson got to pick any animal on the carousel (and could take as long as he
wanted to pick).

This experience was a little freakier then it looks...these birds are loud and
aggressive!

No need to strain through crowds to see the animals! Most of the time it was
just us.

We actually got to feed a giraffe with our hands! Amazing!

Me and my baby...I think this is where Santa was supposed to sit....

Christmas in Disney World!

On the spur of the moment, Matt and I decided to book a long weekend in Disney World a couple of weeks before Chrismas. Despite a little bit of rainy and cold weather, December is a wonderful time to visit Disney. They have so many beautiful holiday themed displays and shows, and the crowds are reportedly smaller than usual in the weeks before Christmas (I've heard that the weeks around Christmas and New Years are actually among the busiest). I say reportedly because I really can't imagine them being any larger. Even on a supposedly quiet week, Disney is pretty darn busy. One of the bonus parts to our trip is that most things in Disney World are free for kids under 3, so it was a great time to go because Jackson was old enough to really get into the magic of it all, but young enough to be FREE. We had an amazing time and are talking about making annual visits.

EPCOT HAS A BEAUTIFUL LIGHTS DISPLAY THAT IS SET TO MUSIC

MORE EPCOT LIGHTS TO ENJOY WHILE WAITING (ENDLESSLY) FOR DINNER RESERVATIONS

THIS GINGERBREAD HOUSE IN EPCOT IS MADE OUT OF 100% EDIBLE MATERIALS. IT SMELLED AMAZING!

THE CASTLE AT NIGHT IS SO MUCH BETTER THEN I REMEMBER FROM MY OWN CHILDHOOD. THIS MIGHT NOT BE A SPECIAL HOLIDAY DISPLAY, BUT THEY MADE THE CASTLE LOOK LIKE IT WAS MADE OUT OF ICE.

Honey We Shrunk the Kid Playground

Jackson loved Disney World, but we noticed that he spent a lot of time sitting - in his stroller as we raced across the parks (and this is a child who has not ridden in a stroller for months), in rides, on boats, on buses...it's a lot of walking for mom and dad, but a lot of sitting for toddlers. So I think Jackson was thrilled beyond belief by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground at Hollywood Studios. It's designed like a gigantic garden and you are the size of an ant inside of it. They have tons of cool caves, slides, webs, and other neat things to discover. Jackson especially liked these grass stubs (I guess that's what they are...) that made chiming noises when you jump on them. I'm not kidding when I say that at least half of the kids there left crying because they wanted to stay longer. Here are a few highlights: