The Christmas Motherload

Well, it is obvious (by the fact that it's almost February) that I've been putting off my Christmas vacay recap. It was such a crazy busy fun trip and then it was over too quick and back to real life that I wasn't in the mood for the first little while to recap. And then, life got in the way. But really, I'm going to need to start posting other stuff...like Christmas 2013 at some point...so...

This year was a FL Christmas!!! It's really not Christmas unless you get to go home for Christmas, so the world was right this year, HOLLA!

We flew on a red eye to Orlando and were picked up by my mom at noon in a car that could fit everyone except for one person. Or we could have left the luggage. We are so resourceful though, that we squeezed every last person and thing in that car with a little bit hanging out the windows and trunk and one or two not-seatbelted persons. Luckily, there was no incident as we illegally made our way home. It was such gorgeous, sunny, 80-something-degree weather. We went to Daytona Beach twice and went swimming in the ocean. Ella got to take a coveted special outing with Nana to the shell shop and was enamoured with all the shell options that lay before her.


We took walks with the kids to the neighborhood park and duck pond, we taught Becca how to ride a bike, we went to Hontoon Island, to the movies, horseback riding, to a bonfire, played card games with the neighbors, and went shopping. And we ate LOTS and LOTS of yummy food.

One night we wrapped the kids in seran wrap. My dad had a ginormo roll leftover from work. Wouldn't Avery and Addie make cute yin and yang siamese twins???

Christmas Eve is always so fun because my mom has her traditional dinner and games. We played the left-right game, the M&M game, and ate shrimp and garlic bread and salad. Then we all went to bed early to get ready for Santa.

Christmas morning was a blast. The girls all got matching skirts...

...and Santa brought these cool art project/cottages that they could design and color and play inside all at the same time. One for the Terry girls, one for the Green girlies. The world is your canvas: ready, set, go!

Ella got her Julie doll that she had been asking for! And Avery got legos...love at first sight.

DISNEY WORLD!!!
And to top off the trip, we took the kids to Disney World Magic Kingdom for their first time ever! Christmastime is a ridiculously crowded time of year to go...and we happened to go on the same day as former president Jimmy Carter (we saw him in line at Peter Pan), but it's still magical. I love that bringing your kids makes going to Disney a whole different experience. We spent less time on roller coasters and even the Haunted Mansion scared the little girlies, and more time on It's a Small World, Buzz Lightyear, and Tom Sawyer Island. I swear Avery's jaw dropped to the ground as she oggled over all the dollies on Small World.

The girls were super excited for Splash Mountain, despite the huge drop at the end, because Brandon McCook had told them all about Briar Rabbit and how awesome that ride was...and he's a trusted source, after all. Ella went on Splash Mountain twice in a row (thank you, fast pass).

Here we are trying to escape the craziness in the park by heading to Tom Sawyer Island for a minute. Everyone's favorite ride by far was Buzz Lightyear, where you get to shoot targets with a lazer gun for points. Ella and Avery liked driving the cars at the race track too! Hopefully we can make the trek out to Disneyland sometime soon, and on a less crowded day of course.

It was a great trip and the two weeks of no responsibility flew by way too fast.

Gymnastics Meet
Also in December the girls had their first gymnastics meet!!! They go to class together every Tuesday and it's been fun to watch them get stronger every week and learn new tricks. Also...it's not easy to take pictures at a gymnastics meet. At least not the kind that are in focus. The park has become our practice gym, so that's where these kiddos bust out their moves...skin the cat, spidermans, dolphin, mummys, tall trees, handsprings...oh the possibilities! Lovin gymnastics class...and lovin the muscle demonstrations that follow :)