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Ok, so Christmas, in summary.  Pictures available at here. Italicized numbers in parantheses below correspond to the pictures.

Saturday, December 24 - Christmas Eve
The flight out to Orlando went smooth.  Unlike last years fiascos in the airports, we got out on time, landed on time, had a rental car all ready for us (an SUV, for that matter).  We got checked into our hotel, dropped our stuff at the room and ran into our first problem.  After 9PM on Christmas Eve is not an easy time to find dinner, even in the hotel district outside the Disney gates.  But TGIFridays was open and we made it in without a wait.  Then it was back to the airport to pick up my parents.  They had their own car, but not enough room for everyone and their luggage, so we took my sister and their luggage back. 

They made us promise to stay up late so we could open Christmas presents.  This wouldn’t have been so bad if they didn’t get lost on the way to the hotel and take an hour long detour.   But they made it eventually, and we all opened Christmas presents that night.  They’d insisted on doing it because some of the gifts were to come in handy at Disney World (especially the Disney Dollars and Mica’s Tinkerbell purse).  Then it was off to bed for 4 hours of sleep. 

Sunday, December 25 - Christmas (1250-1268)
We were at the Magic Kingdom gates just as they were opening.  We immediately set off for the Pirates of the Caribbean and got on with no wait. Then we hurried around to Splash Mountain while my parents and grandpa went off to It’s a Small World.  We hit the Haunted Mansion and there was still no wait for any attraction.  But the crowds were building.  It took almost 10 minutes after that to get onto Thunder Mountain. 

After an early lunch, we split up with my parents and hit the rides in Futureland.  Buzz Lightyear, Stitch’s Escape, Space Mountain, all the good ones.  We met my parents and they and my sister decided to head home already.  My grandfather was getting tired.  Mica and I went back off to hit Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, the Pirates of the Caribbean and some more shopping in before we left that evening. 

We checked into our resort for the week.  We ended up with our own 1-bedroom condo at the Summer Bay Resort in Orlando.  Very nice place.

Monday, December 26
We slept in finally. Got up and hit one of the outlet malls. We got Monica a couple of watches from the Fossile store, a new jacket at London Fog and we both got a few shirts from the Nike store.  Pretty much relaxed that evening and didn’t do much outside of dinner. 

Tuesday, December 27 (1270-1291)
We were off to Epcot bright and early.  Florida had a cold streak going on and I could literally see my breath in the air.  Almost too cold for me.  We immediately hit the Mission Space ride (which was really cool and the one ride we really wanted to do twice and never got around to it).  We also did the GM test track a couple of times.  That was pretty fun, although coming out of a warm building into the 40 degree Florida air at 60mph was a bit of a shock.   Then we hit Soarin’, the one ride we ever really, really, really waited for at any of the parks.  When we got there, the fast pass line was 2 hours, so we just decided to chance the line.  It took an hour.  It was so much fun, we stopped and got a fast pass (which was then up to a 5 hour wait) so we could do it later in the day.

We made a quick visit to the Living Seas, which they’ve completely butchered to create a new Nemo themed experience.  On the bright side, we got to see two manatees, which are just adorable.

Then it was off to the see the various nations around the lake.  We hit the boat rides in Mexico and Norway before skipping to Japan for lunch.  We had some absolutely fabulous Teppanyaki.  We did a ton of shopping in Japan while we were there.  I picked up an absolutely gorgeous set of hand-sculpted Japanese rice bowls with hand-carved chop sticks.  After lunch, we watched a great Chinese storyteller, had Itallian chocolates, watched the Canadian circle-vision movie (they said “Eh?” twice) and hear an Irish rock band playing Whiskey in the Jar. Made it back just in time to do a little shopping before going back for another round of Soarin’.

After Soarin’, we stopped at the Disney art store on the way out.  We picked up 4 themed pictures of Tinkerbell for Mica (one for Winter, Summer, Spring and Fall).  They’re gorgeous.  Then we left to meet my family for dinner. 

Wednesday, December 28 (1292-1323)
My grandfather was flying back to Albuquerque, so we all went to play mini-golf before he left.  Then we met my parents for lunch and went shopping at the Ron Jon Surf Shop in Orlando.  Picked up a few gifts and an awesome tiki mug.  For dinner, we went to Medieval Times. Dinner was excellent, the show was fabulous and we spent an hour walking thru the medieval tourture exhibit.

Thursday, December 29 (1327-1373)
Back to Disney World, this time with Rebecca to visit MGM Studios.  We got there early and immediately hit the Rockin’ Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror twice each.  Then we saw the new Xtreme Car Stunt Show.  It was absolutely amazing.  Best show I’ve seen Disney put on yet. 

Then we went back to Epcot with my sister.  Waited almost 2 hours for Soarin’ (the only ride we really waited a long time in line for), walked around the world, stopped in Japan to pick up a nice Japanese tea set and some more green tea.  Did the boat ride in Norway again and left relatively early.  Spent that night taking a nice bath in the jaccuzzi tub while sipping margaritas. 

Friday, December 30 (1374-1504)
My parents went back to Disney with us to the Wild Animal Kingdom.  This has got to be one of my new favorite parks.  We went immediately to the jungle safari and grabbed a fast pass before getting in line.  We walked right onto the ride  (which was very interesting because it was very foggy) and then walked through the African animal exhibits before using our fast passes to get right back on the safari a second time.  We had to stop in the middle of the drive because there was a rhino in the road.  We were so close I couldn’t take a picture of more than it’s face with a 50mm lens on my camera.

We also visited the tree of life, the Asian jungle trek, half a dozen stores and watched all the animal exhibits along the way.  It was a blast.  My parents left around 10 to see the other parks, we stayed until almost 2 before leaving Disney for the last time. 

Back at the resort, we were paid a visit by two heron that live on the property.  They posed for a few pictures before flying off into the sunset.  Later, we met my parents again for an awesome dinner at Houlihan’s that evening. 

Saturday, December 31 (1505-1509)
Saturday, I took Mica for a tour of the east coast of Central Florida.  We drove out to Daytona Beach (which was under serious reconstruction) for lunch.  Then we drove down to Cocoa Beach. We did a ton of shopping at the original Ron Jon surf shop and went for a nice walk on the beach. 

For New Years, the resort put on an absolutely fabulous fireworks show for about 15 minutes at Midnight.  It was more than I’d ever expect from a hotel. 

Sunday, January 1, 2006 (1510-1512)
We were up bright and early (4:30) to make it to the airport for an 8AM flight. The flight back was on time, the St. Louis weather was pleasantly mild and the puppies were estatic to see us.  Right up until we noticed how dirty they were and put them into the bath. 

-the end-

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