Christmas Vacation: Disney-Bound

We left as early as we could the Wednesday after New Year's to head down to Orlando for the final leg of our trip: a whirlwind tour-de-amusement-parks with my mom, my siblings, and all of their spouses and kids.  I've mentioned that it was cold for most of our trip, and the day we left to go back to Orlando the weather was cold enough that it actually affected our drive.  Tallahassee had some snow that morning, and a large section of I-10 was closed down because of ice. 

Behold: SNOW!

There was a small army of trucks with snow plows on I-10,
ready to deal with the snow that was melting as soon as it hit the ground.

De-icing the windshield wiper.

We took a detour toward I-75 but it only took an extra 30 minutes or so and we saw some really beautiful homes on the way, along with ice-laden vegetation.  At least the drive was smooth and the kids were good, and everyone agreed to eat at one more of my bucket list dining establishments.

We had some time to ourselves when we arrived at our Disney World resort, so we unpacked and got settled in our room, then forced the kids to play outside in the grass, burning off energy tossing Jack's new football around (which he'd purchased in Tallahassee), and explore the resort a little bit.

Luke put Jack's hat on backwards and called it his football helmet.

Then it was time to start meeting up with the rest of the family, and the real fun began!  It was so great to see everyone - I can't even remember the last time all of us were together.  (I think it might have been when we were in Orlando to go to Universal Studios, which was 6 grandkids and almost 7 years ago.)  Eliza stayed with her cousin Sawyer that night, which didn't bother her one bit.

Note: Many of the photos I'll post from this leg of the trip were taken by other members of the family who kindly shared.  Thank you!