2 Castles, 2 Send out 2011 & Ring in 2012...12 Days of Christmas

[annmarieda]

What fun you have! I am jealous... your kids seem to always be into your themed nights. I know my youngest dd would be.. but getting my ds to play along.

I notice your kids are outside in shorts.. no shoes. AHHH it must be warm there??? Again... jealous. we are having a prolonged winter. I don't have to wear my long coat any more... but sweaters are still a necessary garment. And the rain... and gray skies.... I think I am going to have to hop a plane just to get some Vitamin D!!! To be fair and honest... we have had an occasional sunny day. Still, sunny and in the upper 60's isn't THAT warm. But...warm enough for short sleeves. Just sad that those days are few and far between. Last I looked at the weather forecast though, it looked like maybe this week would be nice. Looking out my window though... Sweater day for sure!

 

[Rayvn]

I am only on page 2, but I love all your ideas so far.

I just finished reading everything and I want to come to your house on movie days. Thanks for the inspiration!

Leslie

 

[momabaarjo]

Thinking of canceling trip.... I just don't see the budget coming together at the moment thanks to airfare. I had budgeted around $400 per ticket round trip or $2000. No airline is even coming close to the budget...$400 is closer to one way. Last December when I started thinking of this trip...roundtrip was around $300, so I thought $400 would give me a lot of wiggle room.

I know...I was going to give airfare until September to calm back down...but even looking at 3 months out from now airfares are crazy high...so I am not holding on to much hope they will calm down 3 months out for me!

I am going back in and trying to trim some fat from the plans.

The only major bummer is that if I cancel, I am out the money for BWV. My rental agreement does not allow for cancellation so I would be eating around $2100, which is paid for in full. I wonder how easy it would be to find someone who would want my BWV reservations...being after the Christmas week mad house.

This makes me really sad...

 

[Becc1]

Oh no, I so hope that you don't have to cancel. Is it possible for you guys to drive? I know it's a pain but it beats having to cancel. So sorry your going through this stress!

 

[momabaarjo]

You made my cupcakes! Ok not my cupcakes but I will be making them this week for our Cars 2 night! They came out great, great night overall. I need to come up with an activity so I may steal a couple ideas from you

Ab and Boo actually made the cupcakes...with a little help. I could not resist a few months ago when I found them...They really were not as bad as I thought they would be to make and they turned out pretty good for this non cake decorating family! I really liked Mater the best.

 

[momabaarjo]

What fun you have! I am jealous... your kids seem to always be into your themed nights. I know my youngest dd would be.. but getting my ds to play along.

I notice your kids are outside in shorts.. no shoes. AHHH it must be warm there??? Again... jealous. we are having a prolonged winter. I don't have to wear my long coat any more... but sweaters are still a necessary garment. And the rain... and gray skies.... I think I am going to have to hop a plane just to get some Vitamin D!!! To be fair and honest... we have had an occasional sunny day. Still, sunny and in the upper 60's isn't THAT warm. But...warm enough for short sleeves. Just sad that those days are few and far between. Last I looked at the weather forecast though, it looked like maybe this week would be nice. Looking out my window though... Sweater day for sure!

My key getting the two older ones to join along is to let them do some of the planning and the cooking. They Boo and Ab both love the kitchen and being the boss... so these tasks are right up their allies.

Trust me you do not want the weather we are having. Yesterday marked day 11 of 100+ degree heat and it is not even officially summer (Sunday was 107...new record). We are currently over 7 inches behind in moisture, almost 5 months without even a trace...this is the driest this area has been since the dust bowl days in the 30s...the wind always blows here...but this spring it has BLOWN upwards to 30-40 miles almost daily. We are not even bothering watering the lawn this year...we are literally burning up as there are wildfires to report on almost every night.

The kids are so sick of being inside and I don't want them inside in the summer, but it is no fun in the heat and wind (and the dust and smoke from the fires). We had planned to go to the local water park tomorrow afternoon...but guess what a front is coming in (of course no moisture with it) and the wind is supposed to rage tomorrow, but the temp is supposed to drop back into the low 90s, but back in the 100s by the weekend.

 

[annmarieda]

Tammie... NOOOOO. Don't cancel. I do understand though. This is one of the main reasons I changed our dates. Given that I might miss out on Christmas with my older two... it was ok... but really I would have like to have gone on my birthday and Christmas. I was lucky though.. I wasn't locked in by dates at the resort. I don't know what to tell you with the DVC rental. One thing I found out that may or may not help you. If you have a mileage plan... what I was seeing was that buying enough points for a reward ticket was actually cheaper than buying the same ticket non reward. I think the way that some airlines have it set up is that to buy all the points needed is outside of the "average" cost of a fare. Given that the current fares are in some cases more than double the "average" it could be the cheaper way to go. Maybe not if you need the ENTIRE amount... but as in my case being a bit short on miles made it totally affordable.

Airfare gives me such a head ache. I do have some hope though that things are coming down (even though bing is saying to buy, as prices are predicted to increase) I need a return flight for dd and I. I am starting to see that cost be under $300pp (yes, that is one way so still hefty by what I would consider normal)

hang in there

 

[momabaarjo]

Oh no, I so hope that you don't have to cancel. Is it possible for you guys to drive? I know it's a pain but it beats having to cancel. So sorry your going through this stress!

Really not possible to drive...a little over 1,500 miles which would be almost 24 hours of driving straight through...and with it being wintertime...never can count on the weather.

I am going to do a little more checking into flights leaving from Dallas or Denver instead of flying out of our airport...we would have to drive 6 hours to either one of the Big D's...but that might save us a little money.

Our biggest hold up is that in order for dh to agree to this trip, I had to budget it so that it was a CASH only trip...meaning that no credit card could be used and everything would be paid for in full before we went. My spring has not been to great on the budget!!!

 

[momabaarjo]

I am only on page 2, but I love all your ideas so far.

I just finished reading everything and I want to come to your house on movie days. Thanks for the inspiration!

Leslie

Leslie-Welcome...sorry my recent posts are starting to be ...hang in there with me!

 

[momabaarjo]

We have not been to universal in Florida and I really like your reports! I wish I could bring myself to fit it in somewhere but keep telling myself not this trip, maybe another one in the future??

Your twister comments cracked me up. We actually had a small rotation yesterday - all was okay other than some blown over fences, and no power for 4 hours. One neighbor had a trampoline on their roof...

Anyway - I really enjoy your reportings!!! Can't wait to read your TR from your upcoming Dec. trip!!!

Glad there was not much damage. What a crazy spring we are having!

 

[21hearts]

Oh man I'm so sorry to hear that you may have to cancel.. We may as well. It sucks.

 

[lfwhipp]

OH NO :-( dont cancel yet!!! maybe the prices will come down, since you would have to eat the DVC rental or at the least have someone buy it from you, you have a little time. Maybe you can look into buying airline miles from someone? something? oh man, this is so sad!! i am so sorry Tammie!

 

[shocky5]

I'm with Ann and company - don't cancel yet. You have put so much into this... I like the idea of you driving to a different airport. This is a shot in the dark, but check into the airport at Springfield, MO. You can get really cheap flights out. I'm not sure where in the panhandle you are... but it's typically 7 hours from where I live to there and another 2 into Springfield... a day's drive for sure... but worth it??

 

[momabaarjo]

Thanks for talking me off the ledge friends! Have not canceled yet, but I did buy travel insurance for the BWV part of the trip...I bought the more expensive plan which allows me to cancel for any reasons up until the time we would check in...so I would not lose over $2000, just be out around $300 for the policy. A little piece of mind.

DH is dead set against driving to Dallas, Denver, or OKCity...and he is right. Once you factor in gas, hotel stay, time and parking...you really are not saving very much. Plus the fact that we want to fly out Christmas morning means we would have to drive most of the day on Christmas eve...missing Mass and all the Christmas eve things...which I am already going to be ticking MIL off when she learns about this trip and that we are missing Christmas with her and FIL. The flight that I am stalking right now leaves at 7:05 am...which means NO Christmas with her that morning...while that is with me, she is going to !

So I am back to basically stalking Kayak and SW sites...taking my own advice not to freak out until September at the 3 month mark before the trip...like all the travel sites say for lowest fares. However, if I find anything drop below $200 a ticket each way...I am booking.

Hoping for some to come my way.

 

[veggiemama]

I'm with you on flights! It is hard not to panic but like you I have to keep reminding myself that now is not the time to cancel/panic. October is the time to panic!

Somehow, someway I am certain that things will work out exactly as planned and when you write you TR you will laugh (sort of ) about this stress.

 

[annmarieda]

Tammie, I totally understand the woes of trying to book the right flight. I may be having a bit better luck given that I was able to get the two reward tickets... but under normal circumstances that would have meant that I would have come in at and average of approx. $100 rt pp. This time I will be lucky to get that average pp to be under $250 - which is still higher than I normally pay as a full fare pp. I am with you in trying to keep in mind that we are still not quite to a point where we should be freaking out. I do watch the seat availability on the flights too... I know that on one of the flights I was stalking I am SURE it will not come down. Why? Because all but one seat is claimed.

OH... and as for you mil and Christmas morning.

 

[lovethattink]

I'm so sorry to be reading about the possibility of a cancellation. I hope everything works out with airfare. Sending prayers, pixie dust, good thoughts, crossing my fingers and my toes that a cheap airfare pops up for you!

We are on the final stretch of a 2500+ mile trip. The driving is such a pain!! I am so sick of sitting in the car, the kids even more so! So much time is wasted with driving.

 

[momabaarjo]

Not even 2:00 pm yet and this is what the temp is outside!

I am so sick of this weather...we have had no measureable moisture since Feb...we are officially almost 7 inches and in a drought worse than the 30s. In June we have had 20 days of 100+ temps and the forcast for the next week continues with this heat wave.

Jeff finished up early so we have decided to do an impromptu movie afternoon...Finding Nemo...our activity for the movie a trip to the local waterpark.

 

[shocky5]

Not even 2:00 pm yet and this is what the temp is outside!

I am so sick of this weather...we have had no measureable moisture since Feb...we are officially almost 7 inches and in a drought worse than the 30s. In June we have had 20 days of 100+ temps and the forcast for the next week continues with this heat wave.

Jeff finished up early so we have decided to do an impromptu movie afternoon...Finding Nemo...our activity for the movie a trip to the local waterpark.

Yuk! Dislike that temp for you all! Have a great time at the waterpark and enjoy Nemo!!

 

[lovethattink]

WOW!!! Now that's hot!! Nemo sounds like a great choice for a hot day! Enjoy the movie and water park!