Thanksgiving and Christmas Season Starts

We hosted my local family for Thanksgiving. My dad, Kevin, Kim, Dave, JD, Amanda, Marta and Frank all came over. We had a delicious meal and we enjoyed being able to see everyone. Although, I couldn't help but remember the awesomeness of last year and being on a cruise. Also, we did miss the Virginia Huberts, who we had Thanksgiving with for the past few years (that we weren't on a cruise). It seems like a lot of things are slightly bittersweet. I genuinely loved being able to celebrate with the people I love here, but I still missed some of our past traditions.

Once Thanksgiving was over, we began our decorating and Christmas preparation. We don't have nearly as much space in this house. No cool Christmas staircase, fireplace mantle, or special table for our Christmas Village. We had to rearrange our living room to have room for our tree (blocking our sliding doors). The outside also isn't as elaborate as our Maryland house. It is hard to get lights on the specially designed hurricane proof roof (at least that's why I assume it is different). But, Thomas still made everything festive.

It was hard to get a picture that showed the whole house

A could of weeks ago, Thomas got a call that Disney had found his license and credit card. He had already replaced both, but didn't want to leave them hanging out in the universe, so we drove to Disney Springs on a Wednesday night to retrieve them. We walked around for a little bit and did some pictures in their photo center. We ate at the Earl of Sandwich, which we all liked. Then, we tried to walk around their Christmas Tree trail. We thought a Wednesday in early in December would be bearable. It was not. It was wall to wall people. And, people kept blocking the trees to take pictures. It was frustrating. And, while it was really cute, it was not worth aggravation of trying to fight our way through. Disney is not the place for people who don't like crowds! After that, we took the kids to Sprinkles for cupcakes. They were $6(!) for regular sized cupcakes. We had promised, so we had to follow through. But, they definitely weren't worth the price.

For more Christmas fun, we drove to Daytona one night to see the Christmas in Lights at the Speedway. We were a little disappointed that you couldn't drive on the racetrack, but it was still fun. We probably won't make the drive again, since there is so much awesome stuff to do here.

We also went to SeaWorld for their Christmas event. The big kids and I met Frank and Marta. We saw three of the Christmas shows, had dinner, walked around and saw the lights and just had a really nice night. Our family has been back once. I really love their event. They have one show that was just amazing, O Wonderous Night. I really want to go see it again. They also have an ice skating show that is supposed to be spectacular. That show has only been at 8:45 on the nights we went, and we have had school or work the next day.  But, I want to see it before the year ends.

One Saturday, we headed to Polk County. We started at the Lakeland Tigers stadium. They had advertised a sale, so we decided to check it out. We didn't expect much, but were blown away! They had a $5 t-shirt table and everything else in the store was 50% off! We got tons of awesome Tigers merchandise. Then, when we checked out, they gave us a bunch of free stuff, including a hat, Tervis cup, bracelets, coffee mug and more. It was awesome! From there, we went to Carols in the Park to meet up with Kim, Dave and Amanda. We enjoyed walking around and got a couple of good crafts. Then, we had lunch at CiCi's Pizza and headed to Marta's house. Her friend gave us tickets for Bok Tower's Symphony in the Park and Marta watched the kids. So, we had an awesome date night and the kids had fun with Marta baking and decorating cookies.

Of course, we've been to the Disney Parks. They are also amazing. Yesterday, we met with Marta and Elizabeth. We parked at Hollywood Studios and took the Skyliner to Epcot. We walked around the world showcase and did the cookie stroll (different cookies in different countries and if you buy 5, you get a free sugar cookie Mickey and milk). The kids, obviously, loved that. We heard the Dickens Christmas Carolers and listened to Father Christmas talk about about English Christmas traditions. Then, we took the Skyliner back to Hollywood Studios. Even though the crowds were heavy, we did the Toy Story rides, Star Tours, Smuggler's Run, Tower of Terror, and the Frozen sing-a-long. Luke tried out the Tower of Terror. We told him we thought it would be too much for him. But, he really wanted to try. He ended up not liking it, but we were proud of him for giving it a try. He said he will try again in 5 years. It was a great, long day. We were happy to celebrate Elizabeth completing another successful semester at Vet School!

The Skyliner was pretty fun

Three practically perfect ladies

And, here's the picture of Luke on his first Tower of Terror ride. How funny is it that Anna and Thomas are doing the exact same thing???

Luke had his first class performance. It was cute. His class sang Up on the Housetop. Then, we went back to the classroom and had cookies and juice. They had made some cute ornaments and it was sweet.

And, Jack and Anna had their Christmas band performance. They have made a lot of progress in just a few months and I enjoyed hearing them play and hearing the 7th and 8th graders. They both said they want to stay in band, so there may be many more performances in our future.

Oh, and on our strep calculator: Kara got it for a third time, then 9 days later, Jack got it again (that's 2 for him), then 5 days after that, Anna had her first bought. Luke didn't get it this round, so he's holding at 2. Fingers crossed that's it for a long, long, long time. But, I still feel fortunate that at least we haven't had the flu--it has been going around the schools pretty bad.

There is now just one more work/school week until Christmas break. I am looking forward to a reprieve. And, the Wills are coming to visit!