We celebrated Christmas a few days early with the McGillen's at our house. On Wednesday night, we met the McGillen's at Chimi's for some Mexican. After dinner, we came home to bake some delicious chocolate chip cookies for Santa. And yes, you'll notice the cookie dough is in perfect squares. I count them as homemade as long as I was the one who put them in the oven! Here he is trying to wink at the camera.
While we were waiting for the cookies to finish baking, we started smelling something. Unfortunately, it wasn't the cookies.
Once his feet were sufficiently covered up in his superhero pajamas, Jackson made Santa his plate of cookies. He used his favorite Mickey plate and was so proud that the cookies fit perfectly in the ears.
He also drew several pictures for Santa. The first was a letter to Santa. It read: Dear Santa, I like toys. Jackson"
The 2nd picture was of our Christmas tree. This one had a story with it. He drew one of our Christmas ornaments on our tree (the one where I was climbing the deethanizer tower - how many people have THAT on their tree??). He then imagined that I was calling for help, saying "Oh dear!" He then drew Iron Man to come save Mommy. I love that he drew some of the ornaments on our tree. Have I mentioned how much I love those ornaments??
We were almost finished with the pictures when he realized that he hadn't drawn Santa Claus a picture.
The next morning, we awoke to a tree filled with presents.
We also found this note for Jackson from Santa:
Jackson was really into opening presents this year. It was so much fun to watch.
Jackson's parents found this green dinosaur hat for him. It kept his ears really warm.
This was definitely a superhero Christmas. I'm embarrassed to admit how many superheroes and bad guys he now has. I think we've played with all of them this week, though!
A superhero always needs rubber frog boots - you never know what you might be stepping into!
Jackson also got a big Spiderman napbuddy. I think he'll have to work to get it away from Granddad though!
Jackson's Great-Grandma McGillen gave him this Batcave. Jackson LOVED it and has been playing with it constantly.
On every single letter to Santa, he has written that he wanted an Iron Man helmut, Iron Man hand and rocket boots. 2 of the 3 wasn't bad....I don't think Santa even makes rocket boots.
Jackson also has been serenading us with his own music now that he has his own guitar. I have noticed that he is destined to be a rock star....all of his original songs definitely have an edge to them. I'm not sure where he has picked that up. We definitely don't listen to heavy metal!
We made Tom's parents a book filled with pictures of them with Jackson and some of Jackson's art.
After all of the packages had been opened, we had a delicious Christmas dinner. I took 5 different pictures, and in each one of them, Jackson was determined not to look at the camera!
We also got the Just Dance game for the Wii. I'm embarrassed to say how much I enjoy playing it - and I have NO rhythm! Jackson also liked dancing along, though his moves are MUCH cooler.
We felt off kilter all month, likely due to the Disney trip. We were so tired, yet seemed to be so rushed that everything seemed to feel like another task on a checklist. As a result, it took us over 5 days to get all of the Christmas decorations up this year, and I normally love to do this so much I get a head start by Thanksgiving! Hopefully we'll be in a new house by Christmas next year, and we'll decorate well in advance!
We had our annual Christmas Tree decorating party complete with sausage, cheese and crackers and fancy glasses filled with sparkling grape juice.
I love seeing each of the ornaments again each year. Such great memories! Since we're starting to get so many more ornaments each year (or just getting old, I'm not sure which!), I decided it was time to start a document that told the story behind each ornament. As I was taking the pictures for all of the ornaments, I realized we have a lot of ornaments (and a lot of memories) on our tree. Thanks again, Mom, for taking the time, creativity and effort to make these for us. We love them.
Sister Elf finally showed up in mid-December after we decorated the tree. Jackson loved finding Sister Elf - it was the first thing he asked to do each morning. Sister Elf was definitely a bit more mischievous this year. Wish Sister Elf had made his appearance earlier in December - it was a lot of fun this year!
His first stop was in the Nativity to celebrate Jesus' birth.
Sister Elf really missed the snow and decided to have a little snowball fight with Frosting (as Jackson calls him):
Mac came over to babysit Jackson one night, and she took him to Cracker Barrel. He somehow persuaded her to buy him a mini-violin to play with; Mac definitely spoils him! That's just one of the reasons why he loves her. :) The next morning, Sister Elf was playing the violin. Jackson got really upset because he wanted to play with the violin! Since no one is able to touch Sister Elf, Jackson would have to wait until Sister Elf moved. Sister Elf saw how upset Jackson was and decided to move while Jackson was at school. This time he got into the Tinker Toys:
Sister Elf loves hanging around:
Jackson loves the Polar Express; it's one of his favorite movies. Sister Elf decided to bring out the real Polar Express book to read to the Toy Story gang. Scart wanted in on the action, too. My grandma gave me this book when I was in elementary school; it is such a great book with beautiful drawings in it. I'll always treasure that book.
We've been trying to get Jackson to eat more at dinner, especially more veggies. One day we made the mistake of saying that Sister Elf was watching and that Jackson needed to eat his vegetables. Jackson immediately started bawling, saying that Santa wouldn't come and bring presents because he wasn't eating his veggies. I quickly saw my mistake and changed my reasoning as to why he needed to eat his veggies - to grow big and strong....and he eventually ate them. Sister Elf decided Jackson needed a little reminder as to what we really need to remember and celebrate about Christmas.
Sister Elf was really mischievous on the morning that the McGillen's were going to arrive for our family Christmas:
The morning of the McGillen Christmas, Sister Elf wanted to watch all of the action. We were really sad to see Sister Elf leave.
We made it back from Disney World in one piece with lots of memories, but very tired! We were going, going, going for the entire time. I think it took us over a week just to get back to feeling somewhat normal!
Here's a link to our WDW video that shares our week at Disney. We had so much fun - I think I've watched this video at least 10 times just remembering our fun times.
We told Jackson we were going to Disney World through a scavenger hunt, just like my parents used to do for Jenna and me on our birthdays. At each clue, there was also a piece of dress-up clothing to put on. He looked pretty cute by the end of the hunt. The last clue was (found in a suitcase) was about watching a movie. When he opened up the cabinet to our DVD player, Mickey was sitting there and had put the Disney planning DVD in for us to watch. He was a bit underwhelmed by the video, but he got more excited as it came closer to the trip.
Jackson took his first plane ride on our way to Florida. I love Southwest. During one of our layovers, I asked if Jackson could just meet the pilot quickly, and the pilot immediately asked if he wanted to sit in the co-pilot's seat. Jackson showed him the plane picture he drew, but said he couldn't keep it. :)
On the return trip, one of the flight attendants gave Jackson his own set of wings. He was so proud of them and told everyone around him that he was the pilot and was driving the plane.
For our first day at Disney, we went to the Animal Kingdom. We saw they were about to start the "Festival of the Lion King" show, so we decided to watch. As we walked in with the crowd, the usher motioned us to follow her and she put us on the very front row! We felt very special...and then we realized we'd be part of the show. To Tom's credit, he did an AMAZING elephant sound, and Jackson did a great job as the "Shaker" and playing Follow the Leader. The show was really good, and we were singing the Lion King songs for the rest of the trip!
After Lion King, we went to meet Mickey and Goofy. Meeting all of the characters was one of Jackson's favorite parts of the trip.
Later that night we went to Hollywood Studios. I was amazed at how many people were at the park. The lights were beautiful.
The next day, after breakfast with the characters at the Beach Club, we went to Epcot by boat. We walked around quite a bit seeing the sights and riding on Soarin' and Test Track. Jackson LOVED both of those. He's quite the adventurer! For lunch, we tried some of the countries cuisine. Tom opted for a Japanese bowl and was a little sad he didn't come with us to the French Boulangerie. Jackson picked out a "cheese/ham samich" and a chocolate donut. Guess which one he ate first?
We had dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant in Epcot and were lucky enough to get a table right next to the aquarium. Jackson kept sneaking glances at the fish and looked for the big sea turtle all night long.
Epcot was closed after we finished eating and it had just finished raining, so we were able to get some good pictures of Jackson and Nemo as we leisurely walked out of the park. It was a great evening.
We went to Magic Kingdom the next day and enjoyed many of the rides in Tomorrowland. He particularly liked the PhilharMagic....especially watching Donald get stuck in the wall.
Jackson saw Donald Duck (again) and was so excited to give him another hug. I love this picture.
Later that night we went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We had in our heads that it would be a smaller crowd - boy were we wrong! I think we spent over 1/2 the party dancing with Woody, Jessie and Bullseye. Jackson was so excited to show them his moves.
In addition to the dancing and the Christmas Parade, we also got to ride several of the rides with much smaller wait times. Jackson discovered that he LOVED roller coasters, and we ended up riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at least 3 times in a row. The people in the cars behind us were a little concerned that he'd be too scared, but Jackson would just throw his head back and laugh hysterically as we started going up and down the track. We also got to ride Dumbo and the Carousel.
We stayed to watch the fireworks - they were great. I loved watching Jackson and Tom together as the fireworks burst over our heads with the Castle in the background.
The entire trip, Jackson would randomly give us a hug and kiss and say "I love you, Mommy. I love you, Daddy". We are certainly blessed!
At Hollywood Studios, we waited in line to see Buzz and Woody. Jackson's face completely lit up when he walked over to meet them.
We didn't ride too many rides at Hollywood Studios. Toy Story Mania was definitely our favorite, but the lines were so long that we only could do it 3 times during the week we were there. Jackson even tried out the Tower of Terror! He was scared during the initial part in the dark, but holding on to his glow stick seemed to help. He loved the part going up and down, though. Tom and I have discovered that we are much more sensitive to motion sickness than we were when we were younger - between Star Tours, the multiple roller coaster rides in a row and the Tower of Terror, we were about done!
When we went back to Epcot, Jackson wanted to see the characters (again...sensing a theme here?). He was so excited that he was finally going to see Pluto (or as he calls him - Poodle).
He also asked specifically to take a picture with Bruce. I had no idea who Bruce was, until Jackson led us here:
The last night, we were supposed to have a character dinner with Winnie the Pooh at the MK. We were all so tired that we decided we didn't have the energy to wait for the bus, ride the bus and repeat it all again back to the hotel after a 1.5 hr dinner. So, we decided for our last afternoon, we'd go back, take a nap, go swimming and eat at the African restaurant in our hotel. It turned out to be a great decision. The nap helped us all, the swimming pool was so cold that it quickly woke us up, and the African food was excellent - one of our favorites the entire trip!
Our flight back was later than we originally thought, so we met Tom's parents (who had just flown to Orlando for their own vacation) and met and their friend at Downtown Disney. We ate lunch at T-Rex, which is like a Rainforest Cafe except with Dinosaurs instead of the jungle.
Linda bought Jackson some dinosaurs while at T-Rex, so he and Tom played with them the entire way back to our hotel and the airport.
At the airport, Jackson found the Universal Studios store and posed in front of one of his favorite superheroes.
It was a great family vacation that we'll always remember.
