christmas at disney day 5

day 5 was scheduled as sort of a break since the night before we partied til midnight. i had also read that you could visit santa at downtown disney and thought that sounded way more enjoyable than our typical santa outing where we stand in line for hours at the mall and pay a ton of money for some janky picture taken with a cheap camera.

so, we spent our day at downtown disney. we began by shopping at the disney store. we had received a coupon at several of the food service locations at disney for 20% off before noon. after a little christmas shopping, we headed to visit santa. we waited for less than thirty minutes in an outdoor pavilion area. when it was our turn, we handed over our photopass card and josh took a few pictures of his own just like we did at every other character spot. santa chatted with our children for several minutes asking them what they wanted and if they were naughty or nice.

they each asked santa for one thing:

carter: a password journal

miller: a green lantern costume

spencer: a purple ladybug pillow pet

i wonder if he was listening??

 the official picture for 2011

 next, we were off to the lego store. miller was in heaven. he loved the different creations and all the lego sets he had never seen and the wall of legos where you can fill a tub with anything your heart desires. his heart desired only blue legos . . . an entire container of random, various blue lego pieces.

 then, it was off to our reservation at t-rex. last time, our children loved this restaurant. when we asked what they wanted to make sure they did at disney this time around, t-rex was on the very short list. so, we headed in and sat at our table and spencer began to freak out. she cried in some form though the entire meal. at first, she was afraid, but then, the asteroid shower began and all the dinosaurs and animals started to make noise and she lost it. she was terrified! we tried to talk to her, the server tried to talk to her, but nothing made it better. she would start to calm down, and then another asteroid shower would begin and she would start all over. she spent most of the meal sitting in my lap and clinging to my neck while i reassured her that they were just pretend and could not get her. my parents felt so bad, but who would have ever thought that our dare devil child who loves the story of snow white and thrill rides and was not afraid last year when she was only 14 months old, would be terrified this year?!?

so, after our crazy lunch, we thought we should try to make amends with a little ice cream . . . mickey mouse ice cream bars to be exact.

 this was spencer's first mickey treat. last year, she was so young, we didn't buy her one and she didn't look very happy about it.

on our way out, we thought we would try to get a christmas card picture. it was nearing the end of our trip and though we had several ideas, we had never been able to carry them to fruition.

there are lots more crazy ones, but we thought these were very fitting of their personalities.

let me just say that i dread visiting santa next year at the mall. it was so much more enjoyable to visit santa at disney that it might just justify a yearly trip!