(click here for today's pictures)
We let the kids sleep until about 9:30 this morning. It did kind of kill us to have to miss a few fast passes and not be able to rope drop, but everyone needed their sleep. Even with all of that extra sleep, we moved pretty slowly. Robby had moved our birthday lunch reservations so lunch was at 12:10, so we had no need to rush.
Now, I should have been working on my blog or packing up, instead I was internet browsing. I am starting to panic a little bit since I have 24 Christmas presents still left to buy. And yes, I don’t even have 24 people to buy presents for, but some of the gifts are small and some people I haven’t bought anything for. I think I need to breathe into a bag since Christmas is in 13 days and our celebrations begin in 11. Deep breaths, deep breaths. I guess I will do some internet shopping on the way home!
The traffic was a little thick going to Wilderness Lodge so it took us longer than expected. That was fine though because it was raining off and on all morning long. When we went through the gate at the Wilderness Lodge, the man told us, “Welcome home.” Aww, seriously, how neat that was.
The lodge is one of my very favorite places-it ranks right up there with the Yellowstone Lodge. We walked around the lodge and took a family picture in front of their Christmas tree-with Graham this time.
We rode the elevator to the top floor to look over the balcony. Then we walked by the hidden little fireplace that was on my list to discover. There was a man on a couch there sound asleep and a lady covered up with a blanket reading a book. Those are really my vacation goals.
Before our lunch at Whispering Canyon, we walked outside to see the geyser erupt. It started out small. Then the wind caught the water and soon all of the observers were getting wet. Robby and I and most wise other people moved out of the way. Not the Dennie kids-well, Reagan eventually moved with Anderson close behind her. The others, soaking wet!
Next up it was time for lunch. The restaurant was loud and quite entertaining. When the waiter asked Whitman what he wanted to drink, Whitman replied with a confident, “6.” I guess that he was telling his age. It was hysterical.
We had enough food for another family or two to eat. Too bad we couldn’t take anything home with us. I had BBQ nachos which were really good. Reagan and Graham split the skillet meal which was all you can eat. Needless to say, they didn’t need a refill at all. Anderson, since it was his birthday, was allowed to order a milkshake. It was also refillable, and he certainly refilled it.
After the meal was over, the waiter had Anderson and Campbell stand up so the crowd could sing Happy Birthday to them. He had one cupcake with a lit candle that they were both holding. When the song was over, the waiter blew out the candle and took a huge bite of the cupcake. It was hysterical. Afterwards, he did bring a new cupcake for Anderson and Campbell. By this time though, we were all so, so full.
After we ate, we walked around the hotel some more-the chefs were giving out gingerbread cookies by the gingerbread house. We tried to cookies, but they weren’t our favorites. Though I did save them for me to munch on tomorrow. The kids found someone to do some pin trading with,
Then it was time to get our car before heading to the Magic Kingdom. It was still spitting rain and the rain came down pretty hard while we were sitting in the car after parking. Robby had to do a bit of work before we started our big evening. That was fine though because it gave us time to assess what exactly we would need to take with us for the rest of the night.
Ponchos! That is what we needed. Actually, we just needed them off and on until about 9ish. Wet ponchos are a mess, but we survived and it might have just lessened the crowd during the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
Before the party started, we rode Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean with our Fast Passes. We had just watched the Swiss Family Robinson on the way here, so it was neat to walk through their treehouse for a bit tonight, Then we were able to get our bands for the party. It was then a walk down Main Street to collect something from the Fire Station,
Then we entered through the official party entrance and received our first cookies-a Minnie Mouse shaped sugar cookie with sprinkles. Next was Buzz with our last Fastpass of the evening.
After riding Buzz, the rain had started up again so we went to get in line for the 7 Dwarfs, Robby had really wanted to get a picture with them. We had heard that the lines are often long, but thankfully they were decent tonight. We were probably in line for almost an hour, but it was worth it for that picture stop.
When we left the Dwarfs, we received our first snowman shaped pretzel. It was warm and delicious. Now, it would have been better with some sauce to dip it in, but it was Whitman’s favorite treat of the night. And yes, even with all of the cookies that we received tonight, he never found one that he liked.
We will talk cookies for a minute here. They had about 10 stops where you could walk in line receive a cookie. Some places had strawberry fanta, eggnog, hot cocoa, or apple cider, but they all had a packaged cookie. Many of my kiddos especially Keaton with her little grin, would ask for 2 cookies. So at each stop, we would collect at least 10 cookies. Whitman did not care anything about getting the cookies, but I made him on most stops because they rest of us still like cookies.
By the time that the evening was over, we had filled up Whitman’s backpack with cookies-it was brought into the park just for the cookies. We had filled the ice chest backpack with cookies-it was brought into the park just for the cookies. And we had almost filled the emergency cookie bag which we brought. The kids could not wait to get back to the hotel to spread the cookies out and count them like Halloween night. And just in case you were wondering, the total was 237 cookies that we came home with.
Earlier in the evening, Graham and I were talking, and he said that we “beat Disney.” In the cookie sense, I guess that we did beat Disney. However, overall Disney still beat us! But it was all so worth it!
I can’t really remember much of the order of the night-it is 2 in the morning after all. I do know that we rode Mad Tea Party. It had flashing red and green Christmassy lights. Tomorrowland Speedway was also all lit up with Christmas music playing so rode that...in the misty rain.
At one point, it was really raining so we did go to Monsters Inc to watch their Christmas show. It was really just like their other show but still funny. Then we rode Big Thunder Mountain. Anderson and I swore up and down that the ride was different this time, but everyone else said that we were wrong.
Then it was time for the parade so we had to make it to the other side of Main Street. Now the crowds were already thick, but when the parade started we pushed our way to the front. One man even put Keaton on a trash can so she could see better. When she was told to get off, the man told another man to move so the little girl could see. It was incredibly kind.
Whitman saw most of the parade on Robby’s shoulders. All I could see in my head was the picture that we have of Reagan on Robby’s shoulders watching a parade about 10 years ago. And I just spent way too long trying to find that picture-I guess I forgot that it is now after 2! Whitman really enjoyed the parade, but I think that everyone else did as well.
When Santa passed us, it was around 11:35 so we hurried off to the last ride of the night. We had saved Space Mountain for last-it was also holiday themed inside with red and green strobe lights making the ride look almost lit up...or at least that is what we had read.
When we made it to the entrance, the ride was down! Urgh! This is the one thing that we all had wanted to do. We went to get cookies one last time. While someone was in the bathroom (oh, yes-we did briefly lose Reagan tonight. I did realize that she was gone and stopped. She had a phone with her and quickly called me so it didn’t take long for us to get reunited!) Anyway, while someone was in the bathroom, Robby saw that the ride was back up.
We hurried to the ride like crazy people. All of us but Keaton and Reagan were in one car. They were behind us and almost didn’t get to ride because they ended up shutting the ride down again. We all finished after midnight though so Anderson did ring in his birthday while riding Space Mountain which was really neat.
There were more bathroom stops followed by some shopping at the gift shop on the way out. We chose the monorail to make it back to the parking lot which wasn’t the best, but it did eventually get us there. We did look over at one time and see that Whitman was sound asleep. Bless the poor child.
Once back in the room, the kids put on pjs and brushed teeth while counting and sorting cookies. Then there was a bit of packing and most everyone was sound asleep by 2. Robby and I will lay down in just a bit (2:15ish) and hopefully, make up for some lost sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day!
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