Saturday was Matt's company's Christmas Party.  It was at the Gaylord Palms hotel in Orlando - swanky!  It's the first time we've been able to go since Matt started working with the company and ironically it will be the last.  His company lost the bid for the next contract so Matt will be working for a different company in the next few months.  Same office, same coworkers, same job essentially, just different company name - at least we hope.


Ice sculpture.  The Gaylord Palms does this really cool thing called ICE! and SNOW! every year.  It's where you can be an exorbitant amount of money to go tubing down snow, play in a winter carnival, and go down slides made of actual ice.  It's really cool from what I hear.  Floridians are desperate.

Jack on his Strider pre-bike.  It's a bike without pedals that is supposed to let the kids learn balance first and THEN pedaling instead of the other way around.  We've had it for months and he's just now getting into it.



It was a very cold day and for some reason this park is really windy.  Yes, they're wearing their pajamas under the coats.  I couldn't think of anything warmer.  I'm serious, it's like 50 degrees with a wind chill of like 40 on this day so I'm not just being a crazy Floridian.


No, this isn't the cover of the newest Randy Travis album.. we were at the park in time to catch the rocket launch.  The rocket is that little white dot in the upper right corner.  America, **** yeah!














There are tons of ducks that live at this pond, all different species, too.  There's a flock of ibis, mallards (those in the pictures), big ugly ducks, pretty white long necked ducks, etc.  We've seen the mallards since they were in their shells.  Unfortunately, they're really aggressive from people feeding them all the time so I have to shoo them away when they get too close for my liking.

















This is Chippy the Duck.  He has a chipped beak.  He's also the most aggressive of the bunch.  Watch out, Chippy.  I've got my eye on you.

I've had some people asking about sizes and interests for the boys for their Christmas shopping.  Sorry to get this out so late.

Jack:  Size 4T clothing, size 11/12 shoe.  He is crazy tall.  I'm not kidding you, it's freakish.
Eamon:  Size 24month/2T, size 6 shoe.  He doesn't like hats.

Interests:

Jack: Curious George is a huge hit right now, all kinds of blocks, crafts like coloring, play dough, stickers, etc.  Nothing too difficult.  Firetrucks, ambulances, tractors, garbage trucks, anything to do with big trucks.  Remember his first word was truck.  DVDs (although we don't do Disney) are always a hit.  These Mighty Machines DVDs have been recommended to us.  Always always books!  Anything to do with play cooking

Eamon:  He's 15 months old so there's not a whole lot that he's "into" right now, besides my kitchen cabinets.  He likes books and LOVES dogs.  Balls are always a hit.  He has more of an attention span than Jack did at this age so he can actually sit down and play with a toy, too.  He likes pushing cars down ramps and putting things in holes.  I think he'd like this Pound Tower.  He is in LOVE with anything to do with Dora the Explorer. 

Hope this helps! 

Message to Jack from Santa

This is the third year in a row that we've gone to Savannah the first weekend in December to participate in the Savannah Bridge Run.  Matt's parents meet us there along with a whole gang from South Carolina.  Last year we also got some Indies in the mix, too.  This year the participation was smaller than previous years and we dearly missed everyone that couldn't make it - Emily, Lindsey, Gail and, of course, King Jim.  Hope to see you guys next year!

Here are some pictures of Matt during the race from the event photographer. He finished 108th in his age bracket for males and 1,521st overall.  Way to go, baby!  Double pump next year??

Get ready folks, here are the FIRST pictures to come off my new camera!!  Which promptly broke the third day we were there.  The lens cover won't close.  The lock on our car trunk wouldn't work either.  Maybe somethings trying to tell us something. Yes.  Stay away from cold weather.



This is the original site of Paula Deen's Lady and Sons Restaurant.  I ate at the original place once a couple years ago pre-children.  Matt and I were passing through on the way to SC and I *made* him... I mean, asked politely for us to drive 20 miles out of the way for an evening meal.  MMmmm cheddar biscuits and hoe cakes.


This is the morning of the race.  I decided not to walk with the kids because I thought they would sleep later than they did, being as though Jack didn't go to bed until midnight.  I was wrong.  We had breakfast and then walked our way through the downtown area and suddenly came across this awesome fire station.  We had to stand outside and stare at the 3 engines just long enough to miss Poppy and Daddy finishing the race.  Doh!


Beautiful house we passed with a massive Christmas tree in front. This is my new desktop - so pretty!






Some much needed Daddy-time after the race







This is a poor photo but they even showed us how they slide down the fire pole.  I have to admit, it was pretty cool.



Back at the hotel for some presents.  Here's our newest Christmas tradition - Elf on the Shelf.  We've been moving him every morning to a different location and Jack LOVES finding him.  Loves it so much he wants to "hug it, kiss it, knock it, kick it."  He expresses his love physically.


Time for the Christmas Parade!  I got tired of the boys eating nothing but chicken fingers and fries (by Jack's request of course) so I bought an Outback steak dinner for them to share.  What?!?  Eamon loves green beans.