Tag Archives: Holiday

Photo-A-Day

Christmas in Florida 2022

The coco Christmas Tree
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01449

This morning we got up and headed to the airport at 4:00am for our 6am flight to Florida. We’re headed there to celebrate with Allison’s parents in their new house. We’ve never been to Florida for Christmas before and our Christmases with Allison’s parents have always been virtual. They send us a big box of gifts and we open them on Facetime or a Zoom meeting or something like that. This year we decided that we’d go down for a week and spend the holiday with them in person.

Our flight down was very smooth. Andy had some trouble with the pressure in his ears on the descent but luckily that wasn’t too long for him to go through. He can’t seem to pop his ears properly to get relief. He had some shows to watch on the flight so he kept busy.

When we landed we were greeted by Dan and Marcia. They picked us up and we headed to breakfast at Cracker Barrel before heading to Disney Springs to walk around.

When we got to Disney Springs we saw all the beautiful Christmas decorations and learned that there were 20 themed Christmas trees spread all over Disney Springs. Andy and I got special maps and we went searching for the trees. The maps were nice with stickers to put into the places where we would find each themed tree. Once we finished our maps we could turn them in for a special gift.

giant boots

We spent a few hours in Disney Springs and then it was time to head to the hotel to get checked in. We were staying at the All-Star Music hotel on Disney property. The check in process went poorly and because of that we were each given the Genie + perk in the park for the next day. Genie + allowed us to register for Lightning passes at various rides. In addition to that it also gave us free parking at the park.

Allison has a Flat Stanley for school and she’s been taking photos with it all over. Our hotel had these giant boots and I got this silly photo of her and Andy with Flat Stanley under the boots. We got to our rooms and unpacked a bit and relaxed and then headed back to Disney Springs to have dinner and explore further.

You Warm My Heart

We had our dinner form Earl of Sandwich and ate along side the pod that is in the middle of Disney Springs. Then we found the rest of the Christmas trees in Disney Springs and got our gifts. Andy and I each got a special pin for completing the task of finding each of the trees. They were all really fun and well decorated. As we were leaving to go back to the hotel the area where the main tree was located began to snow. It was fun to explore Disney Springs today and ease into the trip before hitting animal Kingdom tomorrow.

Kids by the tree

We got back to the hotel and Fitzy was waiting for Andy in Dan and Marcia’s room. He had made the trip with us as well.

Family, Food, Photo-A-Day

Early Christmas 2022

Mem and Grandfather and the grandkids
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01446

We celebrated Christmas early this year because we are doing things a bit differently in 2022. We are heading to Florida for the holiday and so in order to see everyone on my side of the family we had our Christmas Eve Chicken Stew dinner with Mem and Grandfather, Tara and Erik, Shelby and Tim and the cousins Dylan and Kylie. We hosted everyone at our house for the afternoon.

Meat roses

Andy learned how to make meat roses from the pepperoni, salami and more salami from a YouTube Short and he did an excellent job setting up the Charcuterie board. He worked really hard at it, too. His first one did not come out right because the glass was too big, however he redid it in a wine flute and got his ideal flower.

Chicken Stew

Allison made her Christmas time famous chicken stew that is something that everyone in the family can enjoy. There were gluten free rolls for our gluten free family members and Pillsbury biscuits for everyone else. We were able to all fit around the dining room table and used all but one chair in the house to do it. It wasn’t quite Thanksgiving Charlie Brown but close.

Ugly Sweater Cookie

Allison had asked what I wanted for dessert and that would be sugar cookies. I had gotten an ugly sweater cookie set from the Christmas Story Christmas mailer and so they made the cookies and the kids got to decorate them.

Kylie and Eva Decorating Cookies

Eva and Kylie made from really nice looking cookies. Kylie loaded up on the frosting with abandon. She was having the time of her life.

Andy and his cookie decorating skills

Andy was also having a great time with the cookies. He’s so very detailed when he decorates, too. He does such a nice job with food.

Uncle Erik and Eva with Ugly Sweater Cookies

Eva shared one of her cookies with Uncle Erik.

Everyone had a nice time. We enjoyed each other’s company and exchanged gifts. Everyone was impressed with the tree and how nice it looked. We were very lucky to find such a nice looking artificial tree and I am glad that we did because it looks so nice. We didn’t do family photos around the tree, though. We should have done some of those right when everyone arrived. Otherwise it doesn’t happen. We did get photos with Mem and Grandfather and their grandkids, however. So that was a good catch. It was a nice day to spend with everyone.