{ cruising }

One of Turtle's big gifts from Nana and Papa Bear was a shiny, red, motorized ATV.

Unfortunately, the weather took a few days to cooperate enough for him to ride it.

It was worth the wait...

We need to work on steering a little, but he's getting the hang of it.

Definitely a gift win. 

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{ merry christmas }

And finally, Christmas morning.


Santa came during the night. 


Of course, we got to see his handiwork before turning in for the night. Santa's cool like that.

There's something extraordinarily peaceful about a lit Christmas tree, late at night.

It's nice to just sit and enjoy the beauty with a glass of wine.


Unfortunately, we got a late start to the night, and opted for heading to bed, instead. We knew we had a long day ahead of us.

We kicked things off with some dinosaur action. Rawr, and such.

Turtle took some time to dig deep through his stocking.

I'll say one thing. Turtle is all about the focus.

His very first hockey and lacrosse sticks. He loves them both.

Confession: we stayed in our pajamas. All. Day. Long.

Pugs love Christmas, too.

The ceramic fish Turtle painted for MacGyver. He picked the fish, selected all the colors and did the whole thing, himself. It is currently in use as a paper clip holder.

The hit of the day: an interactive Buzz and Woody set. If you set them up looking at each other, they talk to each other. Which is super cool in theory. Not so cool if your toddler wants to take them to bed and through the night, they end up staring at each other and start chit chatting about space ports and snakes in their boots. Take that as you will.

We had a fabulous day. It was low-key and fabulous.


We opened stockings, took a break for Pioneer Woman's most delicious Blueberry Baked French Toast (sans blueberries, per MacGyver) with hot chocolate and mimosas and then there were naps all around.


MacGyver's big gifts included a Wii console and new Hurricanes jersey (his were old enough to be outdated, but not quite old enough to be vintage). Mine were a Shark Steam Mop (and yes, it is *that* good), a new set of pots (apparently, I am quite hard on cookware) and a shiny new laptop (which I desperately needed). I also got some adorable Dept 56 figures to add to my Christmas village.


We watched more of A Christmas Story, tested out new toys, and enjoyed spinach lasagna with ciabatta bread and wine for dinner. 


Oh, and for dessert? I baked. Shocking, I know.


There were delicious cookies.

And cake.

Mmm. Cake.


We wrapped up the night with a Wii bowling competition, which was loads of fun.


We hope you all had as Merry a Christmas as we did. What were your favorite parts? Your favorite traditions? Your best memories? Share with us - I love knowing what makes the holidays special to other people.

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{ twas the night(s) before christmas }

Happy Monday!

I took a little unplanned break for the holiday. We just got carried away with the festivities and I was so busy enjoying family time and merry-making that I just didn't blog.


This year's Christmas was exceptionally enjoyable. Turtle is a little older than he was last year (forever to be remembered as the Christmas of the 17 Naps) and, quite simply, he "got it."


Which means that he was all too happy to ooh and aah over the Nights of Lights in our downtown.

And pick out the perfect cookies for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer).

And help us hang stockings on the pass-through with care.

He was NOT, however, thrilled to have to go to bed, knowing that Santa was on his way. But to bed he went, visions of dinosaurs and trucks dancing in his head.


And then it was time for Mommy and Daddy's Christmas tradition: to start watching 24 hours of A Christmas Story with bowls of homemade carbonara and glasses of pinot noir, and then filling stockings, arranging packages under the tree and completing any last-minute assembly of toys.


We were all tucked snug in our beds by midnight, excited to see what Christmas Day would bring.


And on a side note, tell me your favorite Christmas movie. I love Christmas Vacation, the animated How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and Love Actually, but A Christmas Story is truly my number one. How about you?

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{ wordless wednesday }

I know.

It's Thursday.

Don't tell on me.

Decorating butter cookies with Turtle.

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{ a pre-christmas visit }

As soon as we got home from Pop's 80th birthday, we were welcoming Grandma and Pop Pop for a pre-Christmas visit.

The party never stops at our house.

Grandma and Pop Pop also brought something very special. 

Turtle's first guitar.

He now carries it pretty much everywhere.

And he has been treating us to the toddler version of Jingle Bells (ie - strumming at random, while singing Jingle Bells over and over) since he opened the box.

See how impressed Molly is with his musical stylings?

One of Turtle's favorite things about Grandma? In fabulous Grandma form, she rarely says no.

She is also great at making Play-doh shapes.

Since the weather was pretty miserable, we set up an impromptu photo session in our main room. I love these family shots.

It was a great visit. 

Turtle was very sad to see them leave. As were we. 

Hopefully, it won't be long before we get to get together again. 

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{ happy 80th birthday, pop }

My grandfather turned 80 years old this past Friday.

That would be Turtle's great-grandfather. Pretty cool, huh?

We made a seriously whirlwind trip (meaning drive down Friday, drive home Saturday before sunrise) to spend the day and share dinner with him and some other members of our family.

Dinner was at Macaroni Grill. Dinosaurs were in attendance. Did you know stegosauri really love pizza? Yeah. They do.

This is Aunt L. She's like baby crack. Turtle didn't want to leave her side. He's still asking for her.

Turtle with some of his second cousins. He was really, really, really tired of smiling for the camera and saying cheese. 

I was asked to bring dessert. It's kind of difficult traveling five hours with cake, and so I brought some cupcakes. I just happened to stumble upon these Hot Cocoa Cupcakes from Hoosier Homemade and thought these would be great. With a twist. 

The ones you see are stuffed with chocolate mousse. Nom.

Either way you slice it, the frosting is magnificent. Ask Turtle.

The birthday boy and my grandmother.

My cousins gave Pop this gumball machine full of custom M&Ms. If you look closely you can see the pictures of Pop screened right on the candy. Super unique.

Some quiet time with Pop. I love these pictures.

And having fun with Nanie.

Happy birthday, Pop! We love you and we're glad we got to share your day with you!

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{ disney week: coronado springs review }

If we are visiting Disney parks and attractions, we do make an effort to stay on Disney property at one of the resorts. 

While you can usually get fabulous rates at any property in Orlando, the combination of the Florida Resident discount and ultimate convenience makes it worth it to us to just stay in the most magical place on earth.

Over the years, I have been a guest at the following properties, in no particular order:

• Caribbean Beach Resort
• Port Orleans - French Quarter
• Disney's BoardWalk Inn
• Walt Disney World Swan
• All-Star Music
• All-Star Sports

I will put the BoardWalk and the Swan at the top of the pack. 

I would also love to stay at the Grand Floridian, the Dolphin and the Animal Kingdom Lodge with a view of the Savannah. One day.

And I have been excited to stay at Coronado Springs for ages, simply because of the pool. Ironically, the one time we get to stay there, temperatures from the 30s to the 60s kept us far from the water. Boo.

Disney's Coronado Springs is a Moderate Resort in Disney-speak. The website information page posts the rates as $154/night. With our discount and the fact that we stayed during the week (Wednesday-Friday) instead of on a weekend, drove our price down considerably.

Back in the day (aka Pre-Turtle), hotels were a lot more important in our minds. When we traveled, the hotel room was a part of the experience, and it was always nice to have robes and chilled champagne and turndown service.

Now, with a toddler, our focus has changed a little. Obviously, cleanliness is key, but the rest of it? Eh. We need a reasonably comfortable place to put our heads, a secure place to store our belongings, operational indoor plumbing providing HOT showers and good water pressure, and a TV. 

In our standard room, with a view of the water/courtyard, we got all that, and an in-room fridge, hair dryer, coffee maker, iron and board, and wireless internet (we did not bring our laptops, but it's nice to know it's there).

On the picky side, the rooms were a little dark (the window and doors opened up to the outside hallways, so for privacy's sake, we kept the drapes closed at all time), and blue grout with white tile is NEVER a good choice for a shower, but this had zero impact on the quality of our stay. And considering that we were in the room pretty much exclusively for sleeping and bathing, it was not a big deal.

Also, there is a disconnect between the public areas and the guest rooms, in my opinion. When you walk into the lobby, through the valet and drop-off areas, it's like walking into a Ritz or similar. Grand, sumptuous, decorated magnificently for Christmas. That does not carry over to the rooms (or at least, the Casitas), which are set up motel-style, with outside walkways and rooms accessible from the exterior.

But this? This is the important thing. One very happy, very comfy Turtle.

We got exactly what we paid for: solid, reasonably-priced accommodations in a prime Disney location, with easy access to the parks and several on-property dining (we had one dinner and two breakfasts at The Pepper Market, merely for the convenience of it. All meals were quite yummy and reasonably priced).

But, at the end of the day, it's all good. The focus of this trip was not basking in the luxury of a room, but in getting to explore the holiday wonder of Disney at Christmas. And we certainly did that.

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{ disney week: day 3, ICE! and SNOW! }

Ok, technically, this has zero to do with Disney, but it was close enough and that was the main theme of our trip, so yeah.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to the radio in the car, and heard an ad for the most wondrous holiday display, featuring gorgeous ice sculptures and snow. When I got home, I told MacGyver about it, we looked it up online, and we were sold.

It's the Best of Florida Christmas at Gaylord Palms Resort, featuring ICE! and SNOW!

This year's theme was Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Forty sculptors from Harbin, China are responsible for this wonder, spending a month carving a larger-than-life tribute to the famous story. The sculptures are set up over 18,000 square feet and kept chilled in 9 degree temperatures to keep them from melting away. 

When finished with this frigid tour, a separate admission allows you to take advantage of a Winter Wonderland area with pumped in snow. You can tube or frolic or play some carnival-style games. Very cool.

Warning. I don't have a lot of pictures because I was afraid of my battery draining or my lens cracking. Nine degrees is a little scary for cameras and smartphones.

The ICE! exhibit offers complimentary parkas for adults and children. I was ok in my thigh-length wool coat. MacGyver and Turtle got parkas. 

Getting ready to suit up. 

The photo they take before heading in. We had to get it.

Turtle could hardly move, so bundled up was he. Oh, well. He stayed toasty. Even if he wasn't thrilled about it.

Of course, you can't go anywhere these days without some sort of warning. 

And here we go.

Just remember.

This is almost all ice you're looking at.

After this, there was a small area that housed a carved ice angel, about 10 feet tall, surrounded by ice candleabras.


And that opened to this life-size nativity scene.

Another instance of pictures just not doing it justice. The whole display was magnificent.


Those ICE! people really have a sense of humor. Or a thing for signs. Either way.

Then it was time to play. We stripped out of our parkas and headed over to SNOW!


After a moment or two of uncertainty, Turtle jumped right in.

It was just like being at the beach. With mittens.

He took several turns on the snow slide.

WHEEEEE!

Seriously. If you get a chance, go see this. It's beautiful and fun and truly amazing.


It was hard coming home. Good to be with the pugs and sleep in our own beds, but tough after all the fun we had. You know how that goes.

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