Christmas at Disney

Soooooo..better late than never right? Here it is February and I am just posting our Christmas trip to Disney. Shame on me! Well, no excuses, except life happens! I am behind the eight ball-and hope to get out before next week when I run the Princess Half Marathon! #imonlyhalfcrazy

Being a teacher in Florida, I get the perk of a free "Study Pass" each year to Sea World. My girls both are free also (check out the pre-school pass for Sea World!) and with my husbands yearly admission, we got his dad's for half price. Can't pass that up! Our first day in Orlando this trip was spent at Sea World.

Yes, you can walk over this aquarium at the exit of the Atlantis ride.

 The aquariums at Sea World are, well, World Class! I will honestly take them over the aquariums at The Seas at Epcot any day. They are bright, vibrant and so full of life!

A favorite picture of Sofia checking out the penguins.

 The coats are necessary inside the penguin exhibit. They keep it, unsurprisingly, cold enough to snow. It was a huge shock to the system this summer when it was over 100 outside. This day, the coats were necessary outdoors as well-it DOES get cold in Florida!

 We watched One Ocean-aka the Killer Whale show. My girls are fascinated! In fact, Evelyn insists she will work at Sea World one day training and taking care of the dolphins!

 The rides here are perfect for the little ones- Sofi and Evie could even do some by themselves (much to our relief!).

"Act surprised, like Santa just left these", I said...

Each year, Sea World transforms their Arctic experience into The Polar Express. This is worth the trip by itself! I am guessing that is opens with the wild "train ride" in place of their Arctic helicopters (I say guessing because I get extremely motion sick and have not tried this out). You start out in the boy's room-Christmas smells and all . As you progress down the hallway, it "becomes" the North Pole. You can smell the Pine trees and hear that "silver bells" that skips over and over. What trip to the North Pole would be complete without a giant (yes-tallest I have ever seen!) Santa. My girls did not want to wait to see him, the line was quite long!

We were given the opportunity to use a friend of the family's time share near Disney Springs off World Center Dr. It was great! We got completely spoiled. It was so nice to be able to do breakfast and dinner at "home" and give the girls a chance to play.

Hidden Mickey!

 We spent the Monday before Christmas at Epcot exploring "Holidays Around the World" Evelyn was especially excited since we had just learned about many of them in school.

We finally got to meet Jasmine and Aladdin

La Befana is and Italian retelling of the birth of Jesus. Busy Befana, as she is known, is a witch (a kindly one) who is approached by 3 well dressed men following a bright star. They tell her of the coming of Christ as an infant and invite her to go with. She declines, and later decides maybe she should have gone with them. The star has since disappeared, so she hops on her broom and flies around, visiting children and leaving goodies for them, just in case they may be the blessed child.

The Lion Dancer

Evelyn enjoying some international cuisine

We spent our Tuesday exploring many of the Deluxe Resorts around Magic Kingdom and Epcot. If you have the time-do this!!! The resorts are beautiful and amazing and the food is always good! This time, we parked at Wilderness Lodge, took the boat to Contemporary, the monorail to Polynesian then Grand Floridian, back to Contemporary, then the boat again to Wilderness Lodge. We then drove to Disney's Boardwalk.

 Wilderness Lodge

 At Contemporary Resort. Yes, that Frozen display is all edible!

 Grand Floridian-still my favorite!

 When at Boardwalk, we took the pathway to Swan and Dolphin to explore a bit.

We got to meet Minnie and Mickey at Boardwalk

We rented one of the Surrey Bikes at Boardwalk.
This is a favorite the girls still talk about-of course
they were not the ones peddling!

 And what is a trip to Walt Disney World without a stop at Magic Kingdom! We were able to catch the Christmas Parade.  I just love how each float smells like Christmas somehow!

 And we finally met Marie! She nuzzled each of the girls before posing for the picture!

 Sofia got her first haircut at Magic Kingdom! My brave little one sat in the barber chair at Harmony Barber Shop and had a few inches trimmed. Yes, she got to keep the ears (I will put them away as a keepsake) and Evelyn got her first big girl cut there also. AND-most surprisingly-it cost just a bit more than a haircut in a salon.
Complete with Pixie Dust!! (which, fyi, I am still finding in their car seats)

The finished product