Our First Christmas with Mickey a magical trip on a budget!

[Momof2Disneyboys]

YAY for Mickey Mail!!!!

 

[seacrestpromo]

Awesomeness Kim!!!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

for Mickey Mail!!!

 

[Monny2AE]

Loving your plans and pictures

Thanks for stopping by!

Mickey Mail!
It starts feeling more "real" once you get that doesn't it? Oh yeah, we're going to Disneyworld!

YAY for Mickey Mail!!!!

Awesomeness Kim!!!

for Mickey Mail!!!

Mickey Mail is definitely THE BEST!!!! I'm really starting to get excited for the trip now that it's only a few weeks away!!!

 

[Monny2AE]

3 weeks from today I will officially be on vacation!!!

So here goes...my official plans for day ONE of my vacation!

DAY 1: Thursday, Dec. 8th

I have the day off work so I count this day as my official first day of vacation!

8:40am
I'm going to get DS off to school like normal.

9am
DD and I are going to head to the grocery store for a little last minute shopping for snacks and drinks for the road trip.

10am
I plan on spending the rest of the day doing laundry , cleaning my house (can't come home from vacation to a messy house), and packing!!!

3:45pm
When DS comes home from school it will be business as usual- snack and homework then playing outside to wear them out. There will be no lazy TV watching this afternoon.

7pm
Time to be sneaky! The kids have been told that we are leaving on Saturday, Dec. 10th. We are actually leaving at 4am on Friday, Dec. 9th. We are planning on putting them to bed like any old school night that way DS will go to bed thinking he has school in the morning so that he gets a decent amount of sleep before we wake him to go. I'm going to set DS's clock forward an hour so he will really be going to bed at 7pm when he thinks it's 8pm. DD can't tell time so as long as it's dark she won't question anything.

8pm
Once the kids are in bed, DH and I will finish loading up the car and get to bed ourselves. I wish someone was tricking me so I didn't know the exact day we are leaving...I know I'm going to have a hard time sleeping knowing we will be off to Disney in a few hours!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

You are so sly Kim!!! I love how you're tricking DS with the clock!!!

I have a love/hate thing for the day before leaving. I am so excited, but so nervous and busy...worrying about forgetting things. I agree with that about the adrenaline! I NEVER sleep well the night before a trip.

 

[Pluto_fan]

7pm
Time to be sneaky! The kids have been told that we are leaving on Saturday, Dec. 10th. We are actually leaving at 4am on Friday, Dec. 9th. We are planning on putting them to bed like any old school night that way DS will go to bed thinking he has school in the morning so that he gets a decent amount of sleep before we wake him to go. I'm going to set DS's clock forward an hour so he will really be going to bed at 7pm when he thinks it's 8pm. DD can't tell time so as long as it's dark she won't question anything.

I love this, Kim!
And I love how you know what you will be doing, hour by hour, three weeks from now!

 

[seacrestpromo]

Ha ha! That is so sneaky about changing the clocks!

I think my mom and dad did that to us too a few times.

LOL!

 

[Monny2AE]

You are so sly Kim!!! I love how you're tricking DS with the clock!!!

I have a love/hate thing for the day before leaving. I am so excited, but so nervous and busy...worrying about forgetting things. I agree with that about the adrenaline! I NEVER sleep well the night before a trip.

I know I will not sleep the night before no matter how early I make myself lie down.

I love this, Kim!
And I love how you know what you will be doing, hour by hour, three weeks from now!

This first day is actually the only day of the whole trip that I have planned out like that!

Ha ha! That is so sneaky about changing the clocks!

I think my mom and dad did that to us too a few times.

LOL!

Sometimes it's so much fun being a parent!

 

[Monny2AE]

DAY 2: Friday, Dec. 9th ROAD TRIP!!!!

The alarm will be set for 3:30am and we are hoping to be out the door no later than 4am. Leaving this early will help us miss the morning rush hour traffic through Baltimore and DC...hopefully!

I'm going to have breakfast packed so we won't have to stop until at least after DC or possibly even Richmond VA depending on how traffic is and if anyone requests a potty break sooner.

Our last trip we were across the Florida line by dinner time and made it all the way to Disney by 9pm. I didn't make any reservations for a hotel though. It's too hard to know for sure if we will make it all the way by nightfall. Last time I called when we were about a half hour out and made a room only reservation at CBR. If not we will stay at a hotel nearby and have a short drive in the morning.


Here's some pics from our road trip in January of 2009. I don't have any pics from our drive in 2010. I was too busy dealing with DS's car sickness to take pics.

I can't wait to see those pine trees turn into palm trees! Looking for palm trees is one of the most exciting parts of our road trip!

Can't wait to drive under this!!!!!!

 

[Pluto_fan]

Aww, your baby Snowbirds were so little back then!

 

[TinkerbellinNY6]

Your plans look great! I love the first sight of palm trees when we drive down south! Our trips are getting closer!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

When we've driven it's always been so wonderful to see those first palm trees - we know we're getting close!!!

We called on our Dec 09 trip to add a room only because we got there so much earlier (driving straight through will do that!). We got a better deal at Swan than POR so we stayed there. That was cool!

I can't believe how much your kids have changed in those couple years!!! They look like babies in those pictures! They're so cute! I hope no one is sick on this trip!

 

[seacrestpromo]

Cute pictures of your kiddos!

You are so brave to drive so far with such young ones.

I would be tearing my hair out by the second hour.

Sea

 

[Monny2AE]

Cute pictures of your kiddos!

You are so brave to drive so far with such young ones.

I would be tearing my hair out by the second hour.

Sea

I guess I'm used to it. After a while they start to sound like the teacher from the Peanuts and I just don't hear them anymore...wah wah wah wah wah wah.

When we've driven it's always been so wonderful to see those first palm trees - we know we're getting close!!!

We called on our Dec 09 trip to add a room only because we got there so much earlier (driving straight through will do that!). We got a better deal at Swan than POR so we stayed there. That was cool!

I can't believe how much your kids have changed in those couple years!!! They look like babies in those pictures! They're so cute! I hope no one is sick on this trip!

My babies are definitely growing! I'm so excited that both of them are finally over 40" this trip!!! No more ride swapping!

Your plans look great! I love the first sight of palm trees when we drive down south! Our trips are getting closer!

It's a car game for us...who can spot the first palm tree! We ARE getting super close!!!!

 

[Monny2AE]

Change of plans!!!!!​

We decided that we are going to hit the road on Thursday evening after DH gets home from work. I'll have everything loaded and ready to go by the time he gets home. Hopefully we will make it to southern VA or northern NC before stopping for the night. Then we will get up Friday morning and finish the ride to Disney! This way there shouldn't be any issues with the kids missing sleep and no one will get sick on the ride. Hopefully we will make it there by dinner time. I already made a room only reservation at ASMovies for Friday night.

 

[TinkerbellinNY6]

Change of plans!!!!!​

We decided that we are going to hit the road on Thursday evening after DH gets home from work. I'll have everything loaded and ready to go by the time he gets home. Hopefully we will make it to southern VA or northern NC before stopping for the night. Then we will get up Friday morning and finish the ride to Disney! This way there shouldn't be any issues with the kids missing sleep and no one will get sick on the ride. Hopefully we will make it there by dinner time. I already made a room only reservation at ASMovies for Friday night.

for leaving early!!! Now if only my flight would do that

 

[Monny2AE]

for leaving early!!! Now if only my flight would do that

Here's some pixie dust that your flight at least leaves on time!

I don't think early will happen but on time is better than delayed!

 

[Monny2AE]

I'm slowly making progress. Our trip is 10 days away and I still haven't sat down to look at park hours and crowd predictions to plan our days. I'm feeling very ill prepared!!! DH downloaded an app for his cell phone that tells us the wait times so that will be helpful!

I made these for the kids today! The DISign is by Shadowriter. I love the Creative DISign forum!

Little by little I'm crossing things off my "To Do" list!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Yay! I'm glad you're leaving earlier!! We do that a lot and try to get a few more hours closer. Of course, we often end up driving all night!!

Super cute MVMCP shirts!! those DISigners are awesome!