"Fantasy and reality often overlap." —Walt Disney

HEY!

It is Xmas Eve and in the approaching rush rush of the holidays (and serious about that because I am not even sure what the plan is with Ri's fam xmas day).

..and What am I doing?
Writing you. I hope you feel all warm and fuzzy.

I just had to share about our awesome day Tuesday BEFORE I felt the pressure of adding it to my big Xmas Eve/Xmas pic vid dump.

--We didn't tell Rory where we were going to go on Tuesday.I spent all of Monday getting things ready for us.Wrapped a present for Ben&Ileana ,even - and Rory didn't seem to catch on.
We got up and took our time for a relaxed day and headed to Ben's house... We asked Rory where she would like to go after Ben's if she could go anywhere she wanted.
She said " I don't know, I guess we go shopping or something?"
We told her we could go somewhere more fun than THAT.. and she still didn't catch on. Ri started telling her to watch signs on the way and see if there was any place she wanted to go.
The Universal Studios signs were all over she seemed vaguely interested- the sea world signs she barely payed attention to..
When she saw a big billboard of a girl with Mickey Mouse she got a little excited. Even more excited when she saw a billboard for Disney Hollywood Studios with a rock star(a girl singing on American Idol) on it she was really excited .. But I think she was too afraid it might not be so to say.
We even reminded her were Ben works for Mickey Mouse.
We stopped at Ben's house and admired their pretty tree, chatted a bit Rory figured out where were headed,
-Ben's mom and Stepdad , Ileana's mom and all packed up.. and we followed them





Rory was SOOO excited.
It was sooo crowded. We rode the tram- the lady on the tram even said it is CROWDED..
to the monorail. Rory says the monorail is one of her fav rides lol.



The decorations were soo beautiful.

Rory tried to plan her day.

Rory showed off posing for the cam's on mainstreet. She is such a little model - I can't wait to see those pics.

It was SUPER crowded. We stopped and watch a little bit of the show at the castle.
Ben put Rory on his shoulder so she could see.

Can you see how excited she is?!

I think she thinks Ben is magic.
She spent most the day hugging him and having him carry her. She was just soo thrilled to be there and see everything. Pretty freaking awesome gift.

Rory was pretty amazingly behaved. She had long convos with anyone who gave her a minute to talk. I think she may have talked both Ben and Ileana's mom's ears off.

We did SEE characters - but a day soo crowded long lines formed fast so we didn't bother to meet any up close.

We headed 1st to Space Mountain-
Ri's all time favorite.We were hoping Rory was tall enough but she wasn't quite :( .
The guys ended up riding while we waited. Ri almost talked me into riding with them but I didn't want to ride if Rory couldn't I know she was a little sad she wasn't big enough.
In the second I ran back to the ride to get the backpack and talk to Ri , Rory had talked Ileana into buying her a popsicle lol, child is almost sneaky about it.
Ri said they changed space mountain a lot.
Thank Goodness for cellphones, finding each other in that huge crowd of people would have been IMPOSSIBLE without them.

Rory wanted to ride a ride so we headed a direction towards the more kiddie rides
She LOVED barnstormers last time we went..
This time she was a little nervous waiting in the long line

She said it was a bit too much this time.

On through Fantasy Land stopping to admire the carousel.
Ileana looks soo cute- I can't imagine walking around Disney 9 mo preggy.

and she did it with ease, and while making sure her mom was comfy.

Next Haunted Mansion which Rory really wanted to ride for some reason.


... huge .HUGE line.
Rory even got to have an important mission - and carry the wait time card for the ride.

I did get some vid of that but it is pretty much too dark to see.
Rory was sooo cute she decided to ride with Ben "because he is the bravest, but don't tell Daddy"
She was a little scared when she got off but she still loves that ride and was talking about all her favorite parts of it.

Through the scary growing crowd on to pirates

Ben&Ileana got us passes which took us back behind the ride - with no line, or wait. Guest services even gave Rory a wand and stickers when we waited to get the passes.

Rory says this is her very favorite ride- and I have to agree
tho maybe I just have a bias of sharing a hairdo with Jack- as Lissy says.

Rory BEGGED for one of those giant swirly lollypops- before Ri could even reply Diana handed Rory money. :O . Child is spoiled!

We stopped to watch a little of the holiday show and take pics
Ileana and her mom- the are soo sweet.




We decided to head out of the park for food-
Rory had been asking every 5 seconds for one of those mickey mouse head balloons. We HAD to get her one, she said it was the ONLY thing she wanted..
So Ri got her one- shocked at how much it was.
It may have been worth it to see this:

Lolly and a giant balloon she was good to go.
Probably could have ended the day right there and she would have been fine lol

After MUCH deliberation we headed for CiCi's pizza-finding a place that had food for the special diet Ileana's mom needed and for vegetarians was hard- but we hoped we could all find something at CiCi's. I think she found a few things she could eat.
Rory ate AMAZINGLY- poor thing must have been starved, she ate loads of pizzas, picked the toppings off of loads more AND begged for everyones crust.I am thinking we might have to take her there more often , if only I could sit her next to Ben all the time maybe she would eat ,and behave so good every time.


..oh. the volcano at the putt-putt place next door,it scared me soo bad erupting as we left the parkinglot.

Next we were headed to Hollywood Studios -
We have never been there.
Rory says she is going to be a rock star at that park when she grows up.

I think she may have drawn a bit of a crowd posing .
Everyone with us cheered her on- she is such a diva.

Rory made Ri take that pic.


Everyone told us about this light show but we weren't even sure what it was...
Christmas lights,


NYC store fronts- and a huge crowd to match

Set to music,


AND SNOW!!!
-- I realized at the end of the night, going through pics- Ben held Rory most of the time, I knew he would be sore LOL.
Rory was pretty heavy with all of her blanky and all - we switched her off a few times. It honestly seemed easier to carry her in that crowd than push a stroller, tho Rory didn't believe that and tried to talk us into getting her one as she got tired.

It was so crowded Diana & Tom started buying big flashy lights to track each other in the crowd- plus they figured it would be a cool gift to bring back to Emily
FLAVA FLAV!


Look at all the snow!..or a reasonable facsimile - it was some odd soap bubble , foam stuff
Rory LOVED it!
She ALWAYS expects snow around her birthday -ever since we went to CO.
I think this may have been the coolest thing..
and look at the giant fireplace

Luckily, we have 30thosand bodies next us to keep us warm in the snow


It was pretty cold- and Rory was pretty tired.She asked for a Princess Minnie hat-They reaaaallly are cute hats and Rory had been SOO good with the crowd , eating and everything...
They bought a cute princess one for Em while we bought one for Rory. I think the hat cost almost the same as that damn balloon, LOL.

At least there is beer here
I tried to get Ben to balance his beer on her belly- he belly doesn't stick out that much


They were Raving to us about this show called Fantasmic We RUSHED to go catch it-
The amphitheater for it was HUGE and STUFFED to standing room only!
One of those neat water shows with movie scenes projected on to the spray -
...with charecters


and Rory was singing along to almost every song

There show was awesome, water sprays and falls, clips from every single Disney toon ,FIRE- and fireworks, characters- I think I had more fun watching her eyes watch it than anything else

I got some little vid of it- I might upload later if I can get that stupid media splitter of the laptop that messes up my video editor.
Rory has been going to bed at 9 and waking up at dawn... so we were pretty beat.

Look I was really there. LOl I had to hand Ri the cam and TELL him to take a picture of me.

...and then I make stupid faces when he does.

...he does take neat pics, like of that old billboard though, when I wasn't getting a lot of pics like that. I am going to have to start beating him with the camera to get him to use it more often..
or, I could just take pics of him like this:

and maybe he would WANT the camera out of my hands more often.

I love this pic!
Rory had so much fun

You can see she is sleepy. it was COLD, and people were getting pushy and grumpy as it neared closing time.

Awww!

They are sooo cute! As we walked around and saw all the cute bundled little babies I asked if they were excited, seems a rhetorical question, You can tell they are! they are going to be such great parents.

Rory already thinks Ben is the most awesome Uncle, which makes Ileana and all of their family instantly cool too, I bet she is going to be completely in love with their baby girl.

We had soo much fun. With the huge crowd and all it ended up being the most relaxed chill day at Disney we have ever had, we didn't bother with most the long lines , or rides or rushing to this event or that. - and we still managed to have a wonderful magical time.
I don't know how xmas is going to top it! I mean.dude. there was SNOW!


Well I am running WAY late.
Yesterday, I cleaned like Jesus himself was coming to dinner, just in case we ended up doing xmas dinner here.
(Only to hear Sari wants to do it).
Val came over and exchanged gifts. Ri had went all over creation(well, at least every grocery or food store from here to st.auggy) looking for stuff to make a vermont style gift basket for her- cheese , crackers, sausage, maple syrup. and we found Seth a cool helicopter toy that shoots way up in the air.
She got us a set of pots and pans! which are beyond needed,
and Rory a Tinkerbell dress up treasure chest- and seth got Rory some more toy food for her kitchen. Really sweet - awww!
they also brought over the haul Rory got from the eagles with a big doll, and a little ice creaqm maker thing.

. Ri JUST managed to put a new element in the oven,
and he found her that petshop toy she said she wanted from santa,
Rory needs out of the tub, and we all need to get ready to go to GrammaGrapes.

ahhhh. rush rush rush.

I hope you have a happy holiday- whatever you celebrate -
&

PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE