Walt Disney World!

December 3, 2011 was the day we had all been waiting for.  Our trip to Walt Disney World at Christmas time!  That morning we were up bright and early and Brian's dad took us out to the airport so we could catch our 10:00 a.m. flight.  We beat the morning rush and were able to stop and get the boys a bite to eat before the flight.  On the way to Orlando we had a non-stop flight which was so very nice.  The kids did pretty well on the flight and we were soon standing in line to take the Magical Express to our hotel.  Bradon finally fell asleep on the bus ride from the airport to our resort:  Port Orleans French Quarter.  We LOVED our hotel this year.  It's small and cozy with beautiful rooms, grounds and a fun pool for the kids. After arriving at the resort we got on the bus to Downtown Disney and had dinner at the Wolfgang Puck Cafe.  It's one of our favorite counter service restaurants on the Disney Dining Plan and it did not disappoint.  Yummy!  After dinner it was time for bed!

Sunday morning we woke up and headed over to the Polynesian Resort for breakfast at the Kona Cafe.  Our server was very slow and breakfast took forever.  Then Ethan got sick and had to spend a lot of time in the bathroom (this was to be a common theme during this trip as almost everyone was sick at some point).  Needless to say, we did not make it to church like we had planned so we spent some time checking out the Christmas decorations at the hotels along the monorail line and then went back to our rooms for a rest.

I love this picture of Brian and Anders outside of the Grand Floridian.

In the afternoon we went over to Epcot for a late lunch/dinner reservation at Teppan Edo.  We love this place and dinner was excellent as usual.  Anders discovered the wonderful taste of soda.  He also was found knawing on a piece of steak throughout the meal.  Silly boy, he loves the taste of steak and chicken.

Our chef was a lot of fun and for part of the evening we had this room all to ourselves.

We had made our dinner reservation as part of a package which included tickets for the Candlelight Processional.  This was a wonderful, uplifting evening.  The concert takes place just in front of the American Pavillion and includes a large choir and guest narrator.  Through music and word the story of the birth of Christ is told, and it was just beautiful.  It was a pleasant evening and it was really something to be able to sit in Walt Disney World and feel the Spirit. Anders slept through most of the concert so I was able to enjoy all but the very last few minutes.  I loved this and would definitely go to see it again if I had tickets.

Following are a few more pictures from that day. Most of us were able to use snack credits for ice cream or crepes that night.

As part of our Candlelight Processional Package we also got tickets to a special viewing area to watch Illuminations, Epcot's firework show.  The viewing area was great and I picked up some tasty fish and chips from England for us all to share while we waited for the show.  All in all this turned out to be a wonderful, low key Sunday at Disney.