Monday, March 28, 2011

Christmas Day at Disney




Chris and I spent lots of time talking about what to do for Christmas this year. As we talked, we both had the feeling that the Christmas season was getting lost in all the busyness of life at the holidays. Church programs, school programs, recitals, parties: all good things, but certainly things that became huge distractions to our family this year. We believe that God has called us first and foremost to live and speak the gospel over our children in every way possible and so, for our family, we decided that this year instead of making a big deal of presents that will be fun for a little while and then be thrown into a corner with all the other toys, we would take the money we would spend on Christmas presents for the kids and have a big family day on Christmas instead. So, for this year, we thought that Disney would be fun. We decided to go to EPCOT because we figured that Magic Kingdom would be ridiculously packed and we love EPCOT so it seemed like the best choice for us. So, Christmas morning, we packed the kids up, put on our matching Mickey Mouse shirts (because we were that family) and headed to Orlando. The kids had such a good time and it was such a simple, not stressful day for - until it got dark and cold - then it wasn't so much fun. :( But until that point, it was great and here are some of the pictures of our Day of Fun.

Heading into the park - I told you we had matching shirts :)

PLaying with a fire truck - just what you think of with Disney World, right?!?

in Finding Nemo, playing fish matching games
and looking at the real fish!

Playing in a fountain while I fed Creed
See?

Chris and Cadence entertaining themselves in line for a ride - by far my favorite pictures of the day :)

Racing Cars

Stopping by the potty for the millionth time
EPCOT's Christmas Tree - one of my favorites

Mary Poppins decided to go to EPCOT for Christmas too!

Playing drums in Africa

Proof that Creed was there!

and the beautiful crashing of the kids at the hotel!

We so enjoyed our day together and will definitely make this a bigger Andersen tradition. It only makes sense really that we would take the focus on Jesus' birthday off of what earthly stuff we could have, and focus instead of the gifts that God has given us. Jesus - the greatest gift ever! and our family - a pretty close second :)

2 comments:

mama said...

LOVE the zonked out kiddo's at bedtime, that shows a good time was had by all.....

Elizabeth Bradley said...

Oh my word. Mom's comment makes me laugh. Only someone who grew up reading the Ft. Green News in the Herald Advocate would know when "a good time was had by all" and when to use that phrase appropriately. :)

I like your Andersen tradition of spending the day together making a memory. It's way better than toys that you'll spend the next year yelling about cause you're tired of tripping over them. ;)