Saturday, January 5, 2013

Christmas Celebrations

The Christmas season always seems to be so busy in our house!  Between Michigan Thanksgiving, Bryn's birthday, an out of town wedding, Brian's birthday, a Christmas party, and visiting a few of the theme parks...not to mention Christmas itself, we've just been busy!


 Brian's birthday is December 17 and we had tickets to a Magic game.  Brian 
mentioned his birthday to our ticket rep and she upgraded us to (almost) courtside 
seats!  Orlando won and Brian said that it was one of the best birthday presents 
he has gotten...I didn't even take offense to that :)

My parent's subdivision has Santa drive through on a firetruck.  We went there 
to wave to Santa before walking down the block to a street party.  Bryn 
was excited when she heard the  sirens!

 Jumping up and down!
Hi Santa!

We have Fun Passes to Sea World and decided to make our last visit before we 
have to get new ones in 2013.  Bryn's favorite thing is the Sesame Street shows,
 but she was excited to see Shamu and give him a high five!

 They have a Polar Express ride, which we didn't take, but Bryn loved the train!

All the Christmas trees in the lake are lit and change to the music!

 Just before Christmas we decided to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Bryn was excited to see Mickey...until we got up close!
 After doing a few kid shows and rides, we headed to dinner and 
then to see the Osbourne Family light show.  It was cold and a 
great way to bring out the holiday spirit!






We also headed to Gaylord Palms Hotel to see the ICE exhibit.  Each year they 
pick a different theme and this year was Madagascar.  They created a short 
video to incorporate the characters and Santa.  The ice sculptures were amazing,
 and Bryn didn't complain once about it being only 9 degrees!



 All bundled up!


The nativity scene at the end was absolutely beautiful.  


Christmas morning was the most fun it has been in a long time!  Bryn still didn't quite 
know what she was getting into with this whole "Santa" business, but she was excited!  
She was up Christmas Eve until 11pm, due to a late mass at church (which I thought
 she'd sleep though), so we got to sleep in until 9!

 Exploring her stocking
 Helping Dad with his stocking
Christmas 2012
 Unwrapping her big gift, a trampoline!
 Unwrapping was fun!
 She enjoyed helping everyone unwrap!
 Santa also brought her a bitty baby highchair, but she is confused and likes to 
sit in it herself...maybe if her butt was a little bigger, she wouldn't be so confused
 as to what is for her and what is for a doll!
 After we were finished with Santa's gifts, my family came over for breakfast and to exchange gifts with us.  Bryn enjoyed showing them everything and helping to unwrap more!  Later that night we went to Brian's family for dinner.  It was a great day!  We hope everyone has the same feeling about their day!