Monday

Time for Disney! Wow, it takes a long time to get there. Our hotel is 2 miles away but it took us over an hour door to gate. Drive to Magic Kingdom lot, sit in traffic, sit in traffic, sit in traffic, tram to ferry, stand in line, stand in line, get on ferry, Castle in the distance, children start vibrating, Charlotte makes a ferry friend, get off ferry, walk some more, into Disney and children are exhausted!

The crowds were insane and I wanted to leave immediately. The girls found their pink mouse ears right away but poor Quinn's big bean wouldn't fit into the mickey ears baseball cap he wanted. It said one size fits all, except for Mr. 98th percentile head. He found a golf cap later the made him happy. We strolled down Main Street and saw a quick show in front of Cinderella's Castle and then saw Mickey's Christmas Parade. Charlotte danced on top of a garbage bin throughout and Nuala waved to everyone that went by. Quinn alternated between wanting to enjoy it and feeling grumpy and miserable because he was in the midst of plummeting blood sugar. The crash after several bowls of Frosted Flakes is a hard one. Found some lunch and then into Tomorrowland. First up was Monsters Inc laugh Floor, which was a sort of comedy show. While we waited in line the screens requested that we text our best joke and if they like it they would choose it to be in the show. Quinn was very psyched when his joke ended up in the show! We heard "Quinn from Boston says what is black and white and red all over? An angry zebra!" And Nuala ended up on the screen. They both felt like superstars.

Next we split up while Tim and Charlotte rode the Astro Orbiter and Quinn, Nuala and I hit the Carousel of Progress. Quinn was really interested in the look of the different time periods. Nuala liked the dog.

Other highlights were the 3D Philharmagic movie, Country bear Jamboree and Aladdin's carpet ride. We had to leave the Haunted Mansion after the first room, much to my sadness, and Tim and I really enjoyed the Pirates ride but I am not sure anyone else did.

Quinn's take: "I liked and didn't like the Haunted Mansion."

Charlotte: "I loved the rocket ride. Daddy doesn't know how to drive a space rocket so I drove it! I liked the ice cream."

Nuala: "I liked the Stitch thing when Stitch showed up (note: she was terrified up to that point so it was a great relief when a friendly face showed up)."

It was dark when we left and Cinderella's Castle was lit for the holidays and looked quite impressive. Tired sillies came out on the monorail and tram back to the car. The tram took a few fast turns that sent Quinn into peals of laughter and made him declare that it was the best ride of the day.

Tim's thoughts: I really liked the Philharmagic movie. I loved the Christmas Parade and the dancing Shasharoni. I loved the ongoing color commentary during the parade. One of my favorite memories of the day was waiting in line for the Astro orbiter with Charlotte and shining the rail with her bum. The food was terrible and very expensive.

We all slept well that night.