Merry Christmas to all.

So thankful that we have the greatest gift ever imaginable on this Christmas morning….

Luke 2 The Birth of Jesus

¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
   and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Merry Christmas from our little family to yours!

Harry Potter

Merry Christmas Eve! Here’s the last post from our vaca in Orlando. While driving to Universal, we saw lots of hot air balloons starting to rise early in the morning. I snapped this from the back seat of a moving van. :)

The Harry Potter part of the park was really cool {yeah, call me a dork.} Eugene’s sisters and brother love the books, so they were pumped to see the story line and details come to life.

The wait was outrageous {I’m talking wait 1 1/2 hours just to get a ticket saying you could come back 3 hours later!} But since we arrived first thing in the morning, we didn’t have to wait long at all.

The ride was my absolute favorite of the park. You’re moved in a cart up, backwards, back, spin, and fly through the land of Harry Potter – through the whomping willow tree, a quidditch match, huge spiders spit at you, & more. All the details were real features too – not just images on a screen – that you zoomed by almost close enough to touch with your hand.

Of course, we had to stop for some butterbeer…

 

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, I’m sure you’ll recognize the rest of the pictures…

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was my favorite part of the park. They had shops with candy from the books, practical joke toys, wands, prefect badges.

Merry Christmas Eve to all! So many traditions and family times for us on Christmas Eve. I love my family {so much!}

Islands of Adventure.

We spent the second day at the other park at Universal – Islands of Adventure. This park had more musical/theatrical shows & it also had the Wizarding World of Harry Potter {which was pretty sweet…yes, that may make me a dork.}

We all rode the Hulk rollercoaster, which made me ridiculously dizzy afterwards. {I’m weird like that.}

 

We watched Sinbad – a pirate show that had acting that reminded us of the old Power Rangers TV shows. Yeah, that good.

Then we entered Dr. Seuss land…

Where there was live Seuss-sounding music…

Real hoos…

And we met up with our friends from Cedarville, the Mosher’s…

Eugene & Ryan were groomsmen in each other’s weddings & the four of us enjoyed hanging out together for the brief time we lived in the same apartment complex. After our wedding, they moved to Florida, and it just lucked out that they were only an hour away from Orlando. So we got to spend an afternoon catching up with them.

They arrived to meet us just in time for the Grinch show…

We also caught up while waiting an hour and a half to experience a Poseidon’s Fury walk-through adventure/ride.

We went out to dinner with them after we left the park. Felt just like things had never changed. I just love friendships that can click right back into place, despite miles of separation and lots of life changes. It was so great to meet up with them again!

Universal Studios.

The first full day we spent in Orlando, we concentrated our time in Universal Studios.

We watched Shrek in 4D where the seats bounced and shook with every shift in the movie. We also watched Jimmy Neutron in 3D , sitting in little rockets that dove and zoomed through the movie’s outer space. Other action rides/movies we watched that day were Terminator {which Rita slept though} , and Twister {where the actor had an issue standing up straight.}

We also rode the Men in Black ride, where each rider gets a gun to shoot aliens as you’re carted through this dark downtown scene. The first time we played, I failed miserably {I’m talking by 80-some thousand points}, but the second time I actually beat Eugene! {Bahahaha!}

Eugene & his brother & sisters rode Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall twice. And Dillan started screaming {as a joke} when the employee was reading the instructions and was quickly told  “SILENCE!”{in the best very loud villain voice.}

Eugene’s in the first seat to the right of the center of the picture…

Spiderman {literally} grabbed Eugene for a photo opp., and he then offered me the chance to freelance my photography for the Daily Bugle. :)

We stopped at a cute spot with some of the Christmas decorations for husband & wife pics…

Eugene & I are so thankful that his parents allowed us to come on their vacation with them!

Eugene also visited the NBA restaurant that’s on the city walk at Universal….

It was a great vaca day at Universal Studios…

Day one of vaca in Orlando.

So we’re here in Orlando, wearing sweats because it’s only 50 degrees, but still happy because 50 degrees & rainy in Florida is still {much} better than 19 degrees and snowy in Ohio!

Last night was an interesting one to say the least. We flew from Dayton to Charlotte with no issues {other than me realizing I was so worried about the dog situation, I forgot to bring my headphones and my earrings.}  We had just a few minutes to waste during our layover in NC, and of course Eugene’s sister, Heidi, is always hamming it up for the camera…

I thought the plane looked cool in the airport…

Eugene & his dad checking the temp & other details for our Orlando arrival. Exciting stuff, I know...

Quick pose with the hubs - nasty & exhausted from working all day and then flying.

Then we flew from Charlotte to Orlando with no issues. We rented a van, drove to our house, and still no issues. That is, until we open the door of our rented Florida house and saw a “last notice” posted for the owners to call immediately or their service would be shut off. We quickly found out that the beautiful house in which we were hoping to dive into bed when we arrived at 2 am had no water - zip, zero, nada. Just lovely.

Eugene’s poor dad had to make countless calls at the crack of dawn, each time getting passed on to someone else who was supposed to be able to help us. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a solution so we headed to a local hotel to crash around 3 am.

Thankfully, that next morning Eugene’s dad finally reached someone who got the water on in the house, so back we went. We just relaxed & recovered that day {thankfully.} The house is a really nice four bedroom house with a kitchen & the works including the hot tub & pool {for when it gets warmer?!}

Eugene’s brother, Dilla, lived it up picking out the festive tiki goblet for his Mt. Dew & hot dog lunch…

We got our game on at the club house a few paces away from our place. Air hockey, billards, pool…

Oh, and there’s a pond outside our house that Eugene’s been keeping an eye on – he wants to find a gator to wrestle…

Then we went putt-putting where the ultimate competitive duo {Eugene & his brother} faced off, only to loose to their dad…

I thought this picture below was so funny because everyone was walking in different directions – all scoping out where the hole placement was. This family is serious putt-putters.

How about my pretty sister-in-laws… :)

And my great parent-in-laws who so generously offered us the opportunity to come along with them. {Thank you, thank you, thank you!}

And my awesome husband who I love {so much.}

The whole fam enjoyed dinner out after the intense miniature golf match…

And then we just hung out the rest of the night & played some cards. {Not to brag, but I actually won, which never happens when I play with Eugene!}

All was wonderful, except that we had to have our friends take the pup to stay with our vet because he was being aggressive. {Not good at all!} He’s never been aggressive, but I’m wondering if it’s just because he’s never been left alone or because he was likely injured when we were there the other night. Not sure, but I just feel awful about the whole situation!

Despite the bad news about the dog misbehavin’, it was still a very nice start to the vaca.