Merry Christmas

It was a wonderful day today.
I guess the only thing that would have made it perfect would have been your Daddy being with us.

This morning, we woke up around 7. And we got ready for the day. We had breakfast in Mara again. $21 for the three of us sure beat the $21 per person breakfast buffet in Boma! Mara is such a great little find!

We took the bus and headed to the Magic Kingdom. It was interesting since you didn't know what Disney was or any of the pop culture of Mickey, Minnie and all the other characters. I think to you it first seemed like a busy place with so much new, in fact everything was new, to you that you were just sort of in a daze without understanding any of it. I hope you don't think it's another town in America. I want you to know how special this place is.

We started on Main Street. We spied out some gifts for Ye Ye, Nai Nai, your class For Sharing Day, Emma, Rachel, etc. Daddy was kind of hard since you said he likes the iPhone and FOOTBALL!!! I said we'd keep looking.

Then we hit Tomorrow Land. And we did the Laugh Factory. I was skeptical but it was really funny. Unfortunately, while you thought it was funny in your own way, you didn't really understand what the rest of us were laughing at.

Then we discovered the beauty if the Fast Pass where you register for a ride and they tell you when to come back. You get to go into a special line that zips you through without waiting in a long line.

And let me tell you about the lines. OH MY! They were LONG. And it was complete MAYHEM. So many people! On Christmas! Who knew??

We rode the People Mover and saw the Carousel of Progress which I narrated for you as we went because you didn't know anything about retro America. You did a great job of trying to understand it all.

We also rode the Mad Hatter Party teacup ride.

We then met Uncle John, Aunt Helen, cousins Gina and Hannah at the Peter Pan ride. We didn't do the ride. We had lunch instead.

Your meeting with Hannah and Gina was interesting. You turned 3 shades of pink and didn't talk for a few hours. I explained that it was because you thought they were so beautiful and had been waiting to meet them since the first day he saw their pictures. Other than Niles's sister, Celina, you haven't said anyone else is beautiful other than Hannah and Gina. I told Aunt Mia at least I wasn't too worried about you bringing home an ugly girl! LOL.

After lunch we went to see the PhilharMagic which was 3D and pretty surprisingly good! After that we went to Adventure Land and road the Jungle Cruise and then the Pirates of the Carribean.

With snack, bathroom breaks, hanging out, etc, that took up most of the day.

And somewhere in between, you and Gina became fast friends, holding hands through the park, and playing rocks, paper, scissors. You also played with Hannah and took good care of her. I took a couple of really good picture of you guys, one of which you said you wanted and which I will frame for the house.

Around 5:30, we decided to go to Downtown Disney. So we took the ferry boat over to the parking lot trams. Before we boarded the ferry, I took some pretty panaramic pictures of the Grand Floridian where your Daddy and I stayed one year when we brought Ye Ye and Nai Nai to Disney World. We will come here again with Ye Ye and Nai Nai one day so they can enjoy the parks with you!

By the time we got to the car, it was 6:15pm. I knew going to Downtown Disney was either unrealistic or ill-advised so we ended up back at our resort and we all had a fabulous buffet at Boma. Uncle John treated us to dinner. That was so nice of him!

Then it was back to the room and into bed for you at 8:30pm. Just in time!

I knew early on you liked the Magic Kingdom because you said "next year, we come back.". The first time was on Main Street around 10am! And then a couple more times during the day. I finally said, "maybe. And maybe we bring Ye Ye and Nai Nai next time.". And you thought that would be a good thing to do!