Christmas Wonder!

On Christmas morning the girls were excited to awake to filled stockings. Poor Kiersten had woken up and puked at 4 AM, so she was a little groggy at first. I think it was the combo of mushroom soup, steak, shrimp, and chocolate chip cookies she had eaten the night prior. She felt fine the rest of the day.

Everyone was pleased to find their stockings full of tsum tsums, the obsession du jour.

Kara and Kiersten were thrilled to get kindle fires. They were also quite excited about some of the games that were already on them.

Evie received a "clever keet", which she named Trevor. Now we call him Trevorkeet. She would have been perfectly content to spend the rest of the cruise in our room playing with it, but we did make her leave to enjoy some activities.

What a way to wake up on Christmas morning!

We were signed up to make gingerbread houses at 9 AM , so had to kind of hurry to get ready and have breakfast. The executive pastry chef was there to instruct us all, and made every step look so effortless. The gingerbread was fresh, and smelled really good. It was not easy to keep the girls from just eating it straight off the platter.

Evie did help herself to plenty of candy though.

We were finished pretty fast. In fact, I think we were the first ones done. It looked really cute, but didn't even last more than a few hours. It was super tasty.

The girls wanted to stand in line for Santa to thank him for their gifts, Kiersten already asked for her gift for next year. He told her she'd better get started on being really well behaved.

Evie threw an inexplicable fit about going to meet Anna and Elsa. So Ben had to have a talk with her. She just couldn't get past the thought of Trevorkeet sitting all alone in the room, not being played with. I didn't take pictures with the princesses, since we had the photo package. So I'll share those later.

Because it wasn't super warm, the pools weren't too crowded. We don't mind the mild weather, so the girls were happy to be out there playing. That is Kara at the bottom of the slide.

They got plenty of chances, as the line was never very long. I'll take 75 degree weather if it means the kids get to play more in the pools. By mid day it was up into the 80s.

Beautiful Christmas Day! One of my favorite ever.

I missed my chance to get a photo of the tables that were around the gingerbread house earlier that day. All kinds of Christmas cookies, and fancy cakes, and sweets of all sorts. I tried a handmade chocolate heart, and it was pretty and tasty. I'm hoping Ben got a picture with his phone for our scrapbook.

After dinner we went to the goofy pool and watched Mulan. It was ridiculously windy, so we were the only ones there. The girls didn't mind, because they couldn't feel the wind down in the pool. It started to rain for a bit, so I sat in the covered hot tub. Our shoes blew away,  so that was interesting trying to find them all. The lounge chairs were blowing all over the deck as well. I had to make my self a towel turban, because my hiar was driving me insane blowing everywhere.

Ice cream before bed ins't too bad a way to end Christmas day!

Christmas Eve 2015

 This year on Christmas Eve morning we boarded the Disney Wonder for a 4 day Christmas cruise. It left from Galveston, so it wasn't a very picturesque port to leave from.

 We paid for the photo package this time, so I'll do another post with the professional photos we got once I get the CD downloaded.
Kiersten and Evie were excited to be back on "Ariel's ship".

 This gingerbread house smelled so good! The girls spent lots of time by it looking at all the fun details.

 After we sailed away, there was a tree lighting ceremony with the characters. It was really crowded. We sent the girls down front to sit, so I couldn't actually see them from the back to get a picture. I imagine they were down there having a fantastic time.

 

 

 

 We also went to the family "Mickey Mania" game. There were barely enough people there to play, so I was the only audience member. Kiersten was in the bathroom, so she missed her chance to go on stage with Ben, Kara, and Evie.

 Since I was the only audience member, I got to answer the questions that the contestants got wrong. Then I got to decide who got the points. I gave points to all the other teams except my green goofies, because they were already winning. Even with my giving points away, they still creamed the competition. I was disappointed in Ben and Kara's lack of Ratatouille knowledge.

 Winners medals!

 Kiersten came back from the bathroom part way through to cheer them on.

 Kiersten and I got medals as well since I was the best audience member ever, and knew all the answers that came my way.

 I loved all of the holiday decorations.

 Once lit, the Christmas tree was a sight to behold.

Kara was disappointed to see the tree was supported by cables. But with the waves and rocking we experienced on this trip, I can definitely see why they were needed.

 Our room hostess left us with cute towel snowmen. I saw several babies and toddlers the next day wearing the little hats.

we packed along a gift for the girls to open on Christmas Eve.  

 They were pajamas. Kara's matched with Ben and mine. The little girls got more princessy ones.

 The captain made an announcement that he had received a request for a sleigh to land on deck. So we all went to the atrium to see who it was. The girls had front row seats in their new jammies.

 

 The air was alive with anticipation.

 First there was a little show, which I liked. The girls were anxious for it to get done so they could see who the mystery guest would be.

 It was Santa. He was only stopping for a few minutes, as he had a busy night ahead. So I didn't get too great of pictures of him.

 All of the characters came out for a dance party.

 

 Anna and Elsa came too, and made it snow. I didn't get a good shot of them, as they were only there briefly.

 

 

 

 

 My fancy pjs.

 Evie decided to get in on the conga line!

 

 And then her sisters joined in too.

 Kara took a few moments to appreciate the snow before announcing to her little sisters that it was really just soap.

We ran into the cruise director by the elevators afterward, and asked if there were somewhere we could get milk and cookies for Santa. So he brought out the room service director, who asked the girls what kind they'd like, and what kind of milk. So that was fun that we could set out some cookies for hard working Santa! And we may have eaten a few ourselves.
It was a very magical Christmas Eve, and we hurried off to bed so the big guy could get to work and be on his merry way.