I'm not sure I can wait! Dec 2010!

[stephielela]

ouch on the ADRs- glad they reinstated it! be sure and print out all our ADRs that you can and have them in hand. I have mine printed and in my backpack just in case. i don't think they can turn you down if you show a printed ressie, even if they lost it in the system somehow. heck, going back to check mine now- mine all finally reappeared online, but still going to check again.

yeah for mickey mail too!

your MVMCP plans look great. The WISHES party is so fun and be sure you save up for it, the desserts are amazing!

yeah for losing weight too- i was hoping to do the same thing, but hasn't happened. i can't find time to work out and it gets so dark so early now i can't walk at night in our poorly lit neighborhood. i am still carrying around the 10 lbs i gained from last December. seriously. 10lbs! i still can't fit back into some of my jeans, it is very frustrating. i bought a few new pair for the trip. just will have to hit the walking much harder on the trip and after to make up for all the junk i will eat. i also plan to drink more water, less coke. i tend to drink a lot of coke on vacation! ugh!

I have managed to not drink any regular soda for a month now, and I am not drinking any till our trip. I'm trying to only drink water etc, but every once in a while I drink a diet coke. I cut out beer after Thanksgiving (had to be realistic) and hopefully this week I will get back on the exercise train!

 

[stephielela]

I have been reading a lot of PTR's where the trip is a surprise for the kids, which sounds like so much fun! Obviously since this trip has been in the works since September of 2009, there was no way I was surprising anyone, but now I am thinking that I want to surprise Jack with our next trip which will probably be in late September/October again. My question for those of you who might know is do you think he will be old enough to grasp the concept of a surprise? (He will be about 3 1/2 by then)

 

[stephielela]

Today was an incredibly productive day! Today is the last day of November and naturally, the day I decided I should renew my registration on my car, since as of tomorrow it would be expired. I think it's funny that I have had this trip planned for over a year, but I waited until literally the LAST day to do this. After we were done with that, I took Jack to visit Santa! He did a great job. He walked right up to Santa and informed him he wanted a train and some socks for Christmas. After a few minutes of trying to get him to look at the camera, we finally got a good picture.

For $27 I got 2 5x7's, a copy of the photo on CD and a $20 shutterfly gift card which I came home and applied directly to the calendars I am ordering on Shutterfly for my grandparents. After all my discounts and $20 gift card, 3 calendars came to $16 including shipping! I saved $67! My grandparents love the calendars because they love seeing pictures of Jack each month, and I love it because it means I don't ahve to feel guilty about not providing them with new pictures all the time! Shutterfly is always having a good sale too it seems.

No trip to the mall is complete without a ride on the carousel (which will set you back $2!) After the carousel we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch, which was a first for us!! When we we visiting Santa they gave Jack a sticker sheet that had a coupon for a free kids meal with purchasr of an adult meal so I figured why not try it! I thought it was pretty good, but I have to say I felt the value based on quantity of food for the price wasn't good. The kids nuggets were tiny! That's probably why Jack spend 45 minutes eating each and every waffle fry while people watching. On the plus side he seems to have turned a corner in his potty training! He kept his pull up dry from the time he got out of the bath at 9:30 am till after he was FINALLY done eating (12:45 pm). I was so proud of him! It's the little things in life right? I am hoping to do the switch to "big boy underpants" after Christmas.

On my 2 days off I am planning on getting all our Christmas decorations up and starting to sort out our trip stuff, plus we are having Peter Pan night on Thursday! I can't believe we are just over 2 weeks out!!

 

[Nemo32]

Cute picture! Can't wait to hear about the Peter Pan night.

 

[franandaj]

Small victories are always worth celebrating!

 

[jenseib]

I have been reading a lot of PTR's where the trip is a surprise for the kids, which sounds like so much fun! Obviously since this trip has been in the works since September of 2009, there was no way I was surprising anyone, but now I am thinking that I want to surprise Jack with our next trip which will probably be in late September/October again. My question for those of you who might know is do you think he will be old enough to grasp the concept of a surprise? (He will be about 3 1/2 by then)

I really don't think he would get the surprise thing at that age.

 

[stephielela]

I really don't think he would get the surprise thing at that age.

Yeah, I don't think so either. I mean, it would be 9 months from now, but I know that right now he doesn't really grasp the concept of a surprise. Plus I don't want him to start thinking Disney trips are just routine business, so maybe I should do the opposite and make a big deal of it and tell him we will go as long as he is a really good boy between now and then

 

[stephielela]

Last night was probably the most successful theme night yet! Naturally I have no pictures at all. I might be able to rectify that later, but for now, you will have to use your imaginations!

I had a "treasure hunt" set up to start as soon as my parents got home. I had hidden clues around the house on crumpled brown paper bag sheets. Some had pictures from the movie, some just had writing. I had them start in my parents room so everyone could get dressed in their jammies, since Wendy, John, and Micheal spend the whole movie in their pj's. From there I sent them into the bathroom so Jack could go potty before the long trip to Never Never land (I've been making him go potty about every hour and a half, we are in a crucial stage of potty training). From there they went to Jack's room to thwart Captain Hook's attempt to steal Jack's pirate sword. Once they succeeded, they headed back down to get some pixie dust from Tink. After that they found the 2nd star to the right and came straight on into Neverland (the kitchen/dining room) where they found the "treasure".

Most of it was stuff for the trip, light up necelaces, a light up Mickey spinner that I FINALLY found online, and hot hands packs (for the pirates and pals cruise to keep our hands warm) and then some chocolate coins, Toy Story stickers, and Toy Story ring pops I found in the $1 section at Target.

For dinner we had Sheperd's pie, which turned out surprisingly well, garlic bread pirate boats (a toothpick with a little pirate flag stuck in the bread), fruit swords, and ice cream cannon balls for dessert. Those were the best part, peppermint ice cream rolled in crushed up peppermint oreos! We watched the movie, which Jack paid attention to, and then we headed to bed to dream of Neverland! I'm just glad I got everyone to watch the movie, so now they will be ready for the pirates and pals cruise!

 

[franandaj]

Wow! I can't BELIEVE how you go out for these dinner nights, do you have a day job or are you a stay at home mom? The planning that goes into these events is quite intense! I don't know how you do it!

 

[stephielela]

Wow! I can't BELIEVE how you go out for these dinner nights, do you have a day job or are you a stay at home mom? The planning that goes into these events is quite intense! I don't know how you do it!

Ahahahahahaha, I do have a job, full time, but I work at a hotel front desk so I end up with a LOT of free time and internet access. I seriously do all my planning at work. If I had a job that required more attention, I probably wouldn't go on so many vacations! I always do our theme nights on my second night off though (currently I have Wednesday's and Thursday's off) so that I can go do errands on Wednesday and stya home and get ready on Thursdays. Jack gets really into them, and it's a fun family activity. I actually get a lot of the ideas from a thread right here on DIS!

 

[stephielela]

We ordered our photopass CD!!! I am looking forward to having as many pictures as we want taken!! My mom ordered her new shoes, and pretty much everything else is bought. We are buying our snacks and travel shampoo etc tomorrow!

 

[stephielela]

Today I...
*bought our travel toiletries!
*did online check in for both rooms!
*changed car rental so we are paying $1 more but we are renting with National where both of my parents are Emerald Isle members, and it's onsite instead of having to take a shuttle!
*finished printing out ALL my ADR confirmations!

I am so ready to go! I just have to pick up one more pack of pull ups for the trip (I forgot my coupon today and we don't need them yet) and then I can start packing on Wednesday!!

My mom informed me that she wants to give me some money to buy some clothes, since I never buy myself anything nice. This is extremely fortuitous because as I was thinking of my outfits for each day I was saying to myself, self, I really need new jeans! I think I might also get a sweater or two since temps look like they might be chilly at WDW, adn sweaters are buy one get one free at Old Navy right now...

 

[PrincessInOz]

I'm not sure if I'll get any time to stop by before your trip. So,.....


HAVE A GREAT TRIP!

I'll be looking out for your TR when you get back.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I just bought some stuff from Old Navy as well, including two sweaters that a friend picked out for me I'm trying to expand my wardrobe I can't believe you guys are so close!

 

[stephielela]

I just bought some stuff from Old Navy as well, including two sweaters that a friend picked out for me I'm trying to expand my wardrobe I can't believe you guys are so close!

I can't believe it either!! 9 days! And today is half over!

Tomorrow I am going to do laundry, and then we have book club at my Aunt's house. Thursday I am going to do all the shopping I have left (I forgot to get my dad's Christmas tshirt) and then we are having lunch with my grandfather for his brithday. After that, I will be spending the afternoon PACKING!!

 

[stephielela]

Well, because I still have 9 days (well, by now really only 8) left and nothing to plan... I made some ADR changes! It's a sickness, I swear!

Nothing too huge, I had made a last minute ADR for Kona Cafe on the 21st for breakfast, at 7:55, but now Epcot (which is our park for the day) is opening at 8 am, so I canceled that one, and made it for the next day, which is our last day. I also made an additional lunch ADR on the 22nd for Grand Floridian Cafe. The thought is we might be done with park touring by lunch time, so we could always spend our last couple of hours touring resorts. Since we have a breakfast ADR at Poly, lunch at GF seemed natural. I still ahve my LTT ADR too, so we will decide at a later date...

That's all the changes, I promise... for now!

 

[stephielela]

2 days!!! 1 more day of work!!! (well, once I leave here, since I have an hour left tonight before I can go home) I cannot believe it is FINALLY here! Over a year of planning and we are just hours away! I am 90% packed, I am just waiting on a last minute load of laundry since Jack needed his pants and long sleeved shirts this week. All my clothes are packed except the pair of pants my mom was supposed to hem. I am starting to freak out a little, I feel like there are a lot of things around the house that haven't gotten done as far as decorating goes, and there won't be time to do it when we get back! I have a few more errands to run tomorrow for my mom, but I am going to try and get an hour in at home of putting stuff away and last minute decorations. I wrapped some presents today, and luckily since we aren't doing many presents, there won't be very many more to wrap. Wednesday I am planning on getting out early to do last minute things, a Target return, Disney store to buy my gift card, returns to Barnes and Noble, and then I want to get home by lunchtime so I can get the laundry in and done and the last of the packing finished before we go to dinner at our friends house. Thursday morning I have to be at the kennel at 8 am when they open to drop Zsa Zsa off, and then I will go home and we will all pile in the car and head to the airport together! I cannot wait, but I am so nervous about everything that's left, like charging Jack's DVD player so it will get us through the flight etc. It's really just anxiety because it's so close. I always get this way before a trip Let alone the trip I have been planning for 13 months!

I will be live tweeting so if anyone wants to follow me, i'm @stephielela

 

[nessz79]

Followed you from the CBR FAQ thread...just wanted to say happy trip to us! Hope you have a great one!

 

[stephielela]

Followed you from the CBR FAQ thread...just wanted to say happy trip to us! Hope you have a great one!

Yay for us!!!!! Maybe we will run into you!

 

[photographymom517]

Well, because I still have 9 days (well, by now really only 8) left and nothing to plan... I made some ADR changes! It's a sickness, I swear!

Nothing too huge, I had made a last minute ADR for Kona Cafe on the 21st for breakfast, at 7:55, but now Epcot (which is our park for the day) is opening at 8 am, so I canceled that one, and made it for the next day, which is our last day. I also made an additional lunch ADR on the 22nd for Grand Floridian Cafe. The thought is we might be done with park touring by lunch time, so we could always spend our last couple of hours touring resorts. Since we have a breakfast ADR at Poly, lunch at GF seemed natural. I still ahve my LTT ADR too, so we will decide at a later date...

That's all the changes, I promise... for now!

I've heard tons of great things about GF Cafe!!! I've never been there myself, but plan to go next trip!

2 days!!! 1 more day of work!!! (well, once I leave here, since I have an hour left tonight before I can go home) I cannot believe it is FINALLY here! Over a year of planning and we are just hours away! I am 90% packed, I am just waiting on a last minute load of laundry since Jack needed his pants and long sleeved shirts this week. All my clothes are packed except the pair of pants my mom was supposed to hem. I am starting to freak out a little, I feel like there are a lot of things around the house that haven't gotten done as far as decorating goes, and there won't be time to do it when we get back! I have a few more errands to run tomorrow for my mom, but I am going to try and get an hour in at home of putting stuff away and last minute decorations. I wrapped some presents today, and luckily since we aren't doing many presents, there won't be very many more to wrap. Wednesday I am planning on getting out early to do last minute things, a Target return, Disney store to buy my gift card, returns to Barnes and Noble, and then I want to get home by lunchtime so I can get the laundry in and done and the last of the packing finished before we go to dinner at our friends house. Thursday morning I have to be at the kennel at 8 am when they open to drop Zsa Zsa off, and then I will go home and we will all pile in the car and head to the airport together! I cannot wait, but I am so nervous about everything that's left, like charging Jack's DVD player so it will get us through the flight etc. It's really just anxiety because it's so close. I always get this way before a trip Let alone the trip I have been planning for 13 months!

I will be live tweeting so if anyone wants to follow me, i'm @stephielela

Sounds like you have all your last minute details planned out!!! Don't stress too much, it will all work out fine! I know there always seems to be so many little things to do right before the trip...I always stress out a ton the night before & the morning of a trip! But it sounds like you have everything planned out & completely under control!!!

Have an absolutely wonderful, magical trip to Disney with your family!!! Don't forget to tour the monorail resorts & show Jack all of those wonderful Christmas decorations!!! Can't wait to hear about it once you get back! I'm not on twitter but I will try to figure out how to set up an account & keep up with your live updates!

Take lots of pictures of the Christmas decor at all of the parks & resorts! And most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!!