All the Christmas photos fit to print

And here they are.

Thanks for a great time Grammy and Grampy!

See even more in the December 2010 Gallery.

A Christmas photo preview

I am working through the photos from last week's trip to Florida.  Here are just a few, providing a thumbnail sketch of the week from our Christmas celebration, to the Naples botanical garden, a fun lunch out, and a Christmas Day visit to the beach.

Not looking under the weather!

Christmas hug

Tending a BIG garden

Cheers, Grammy!

Getting in the habit?

White Sand Christmas

Innocent bliss

Sylvie has no idea that the blizzard raging up the east coast is setting us up for a hellish day. Hour delayed already. But she is happy as a clam.

UPDATE: 

We made it - unbelievably, so far as I'm concerned.  When we landed, Logan Airport looked like the blizzard scenes from Die Hard II.  After a little snafu with the luggage we were home safe by 7:30 PM - and Sylvie put herself straight to bed, no dinner, no PJs.  She was pooped.  Here's a shot of her marveling at the snow swirling outside the plane window as we taxied to the gate last night.

Family shots by Aunt Willow

You'd never know Syl was yurking her guts out not an hour before these were taken...  Thanks Aunt Willow!

Merry Christmas part II

Merry Christmas!

 

Sylvie the Red-Nosed Monkey asked me to send fond Christmas wishes to her family and friends before we head out to stroll the beach...

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Eve lunch

...In the sun.

This is what Christmas is like everywhere, right?

Christmas Take Two

Much better this time 'round...

Graduated to crackers!

Feeling 110 percent better!

Gotta love Jell-o

Fever gone, still having a few tummy issues... Trying Jell-o.

Christmas bug

We're celebrating Christmas a few days early down here in Florida so Willow and John could participate. Unfortunately, in addition to a bunch of fun stuff (lots of princesses!) Santa also brought Sylvie the very first stomach bug of her life.
She has been a real trooper, even though she can't keep anything but a little water down. She opened some presents and had a little fun - and now she's settled in, watching Frosty the Snowman and trying to relax. Hopefully the bug is on its way out.

Bring on Christmas!

This morning we went to Cousin Aya's house for one of Aunt Lia and Uncle Ben's famous brunches.  Boy, can they do a brunch.

The girls exchanged gifts - that Aya is a fantastic shopper!  Sylvie was a little grouched out for part of the time - a mood captured in one of the photos below - but mostly she enjoyed seeing her cousin for a little pre-Christmas Christmas.

We're off to Florida Tuesday to spend Christmas with Grammy and Grampy Haley and Aunt Willow in the (fingers crossed) Florida sunshine!

Disney Day Five (departure day)

It wasn't the easiest proposition for the adults to get out of bed and get moving on Sunday morning, after our global beer tour the night before.  But we managed it with some urging from the kids, who were eager to visit the Magic Kingdom one last time before leaving for our evening flight.

We hit the rockets (yet another variation of the Dumbo ride, with a fraction of the line), the Buzz Lightyear ride, grabbed some lunch and then made it through the Peter Pan ride just in time to catch a bus back to the hotel, gather our things and head for the airport.

Flying  home in the evening turned out to be not the greatest idea Sylvie's Dad has ever had.  The kids - all of whom were GREAT throughout the Disney trip - finally hit the wall on the way to the airport.  The flight home was a little bit challenging.  Still, we did get some more Disney time, so I suppose it was worth it.  I think the kids would agree.  

Throughout the trip I tried in vain to get a good family photo with the iconic Disney Castle in the background.  This represents "the one that got away" - a great shot taken by Chris, ruined by my failure to set the camera to compensate for the back lighting.  The original is just three silhouettes.  A little enhancement reveals a shadow of the photo that might have been...

Sadly, there are limits even to what Photoshop can do.

Phew.  That was a LOT of photos to go through.  For the record, I took 937 total during the trip, culled down to exactly 500 when all was said and done.  Anyone who might be interested can see them all in our Disney 2010 Gallery.

We had a fantastic time at Disney World, and will undoubtedly be going back.  The Greens were wonderful "hosts" (I can say that, because they treat Disney like a second home).  Awesome time.

Now on to the video...

Creepy Crystal at Disney

One more thing:

There is a mystery person working in Housekeeping at the Animal Kingdom Lodge who I'd love to meet and thank.  Every evening when we returned to the room we'd find not only the traditional Disney towel animals (which Sylvie loved), but also her doll, Creepy Crystal, arranged to greet us in some creative way. Always good for a laugh - if a slightly uncomfortable one.

Day 2 - this one gave me the creeps

Day 3 - Storytime

Day 4 (my favorite - the TV was on)

Disney Day Four (Animal Kingdom II)

It is pretty much an incontrovertible truth that doing everything there is to do in any Disney park in one day is flat impossible.  So we were in no way bothered by the fact that the "character breakfast" (Mickey's Safari!) for which we had reservations on Saturday put us back in the Animal Kingdom.  The Haleys were a bit slow off the blocks in the morning, so the Greens headed out before us so Zachary and Avery could get their faces painted before breakfast.  That meant, of course, that as soon as breakfast was over Sylvie wanted some paint on her face too.  I think you'll agree - those Disney face painters do a heck of a job!

Anyhow, the Safari Breakfast was a big hit with the kids, featuring a front-door greeting by Donald Duck and table visits by Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Mickey himself.  You'll notice in the slideshow below (if you haven't already noticed in prior photos) that Sylvie's immediate reaction to the appearance of any Disney character was the same every time.

A BIG HUG.

After breakfast we headed back to the Dino-Rama part of Animal Kingdom, where Sylvie had the masterful work you see at right done on her little face.  Zachary supervised the work closely.

After yet another ride on the Triceratops facsimilie of the Dumbo ride, we enjoyed another nature walk, this time featuring animals from Asia.  Fascinating once again.

We also discovered an excellent way for the kids to burn some serious energy - the Boneyard Playground.  If there is a better outdoor playground built on an archeological dig theme out there, I'll want to know about it.

With the kids tiring out and the weather warming up, we decided to return earlyish to the hotel and give the very enticing pool a try. The kids were game, but the sun lasted only about five minutes after we hit the water, and the temperature took a nosedive once that big flaming ball dropped behind the nearest building.  Still, we got a few trips down the water slide in before calling it a day.

Disney Day Three (Animal Kingdom)

On Day Three of our Disney World trip we headed next door to the Animal Kingdom.  What a place!  The crowds were a little thinner than in the Magic Kingdom, and the place in general was a lot more spread out.  Like all things Disney, it is incredibly well done - the rides, the animal exhibits, the restaurants.

Unlike in the MK, we spent the day primarily walking around and enjoying the (warmer) weather while checking out the animal exhibits, rather than waiting in lines to ride rides.  The exceptions were a Dinosaur ride that is - honestly - exactly the same thing as the famous Dumbo ride; and a really fun roller coaster that the adults took in mixed-couple shifts (Melissa/Chris, Jess/Dan).  The video of that one will be fun/nauseating.

We took in a fantastic, Broadway quality Finding Nemo show, enjoyed a leisurely lunch in an excellent Asian-themed restaurant, and really enjoyed the fantastic safari ride.

We also, um, were exposed to a display of aberrant gorilla behavior that is not appropriate for a family blog - and that thankfully the kids did not understand at all.

As usual, the three kids got along famously and by-and-large behaved like model munchkins - the only slight hiccup came when Avery was poop-bombed by a mischievous bird, to which she took serious exception. There are some really cute photos of Zachary and Sylvie's mutual affections in the Day Three slideshow - which isn't to say that Avery isn't also right up there with him in Syl's estimation.  Mr. Z has just always had a sweet spot for our little Sylvie, and vice-versa.  This photo here to the right kind of gave me the chills when I took it.  They are watching fish in a huge tank on the Africa nature walk, but they could be pretty much anywhere.

We had dinner that night in a fantastic African restaurant back at the hotel.  Sylvie ended the day with the bubble bath to top all bubble baths (note: shampoo in the water + jets = EXCELLENT bubbles).

Anyhow, enjoy the truncated selection of photos below.  When I am all done with the whole trip I will post a MASSIVE gallery of all of the snaps I took during the trip - one that only grandparents are likely to be able to endure.

Photo Caption Contest

Here it is, Sylvie's Place's first ever photo caption contest.  Enter your caption to the photo below in the comments field.  The winner will have his or her caption displayed forever here on Sylvie's Place (thereby achieving some small degree of immortality).

Disney Day Two (Magic Kingdom!)

Day two at Disney featured a double treat - our first visit to the Magic Kingdom... accompanied by Grammy and Grampy Haley!  Syl's grandparents, no bumps-on-logs they, had by utter coincidence planned a Disney trip with a group of friends for the very same week when we were there.  Sylvie was SO excited to greet them in the lobby of our hotel.  Then we all clamored aboard a shuttle bus and spent the day cavorting in the Kingdom.

According to Syl, her favorite part of the whole trip was the Tea Cups ride with Gram and Gramp.

Here is a small (!!) selection of photos from Day Two...

Disney Day One

Really night one, for the most part.  We took an 11 AM flight out of Logan, so we weren't really out of the airport and on our way to Disney World until after three.  The kids didn't even bother to get out of Orlando International before embracing the Disney spirit - literally...

Zachary took advantage of the lengthy bus ride to the hotel to fill Sylvie in on all the exciting things we had in front of us.

After a quick check in and clean-up, we grabbed some dinner and then tried to decide whether to let the chilly weather and some very tired kids convince us to bag our plan to head to the Magic Kingdom for an 8 PM pirates fireworks cruise.  Ultimately we decided to power through - and boy was that the right call.

Sylvie was very excited to see Mr. Smee and Captain Hook - even though she has yet to make it through a complete viewing of Peter Pan... or maybe because she hasn't.

 After a meet-and-greet with the pirates, it was off to the pirate-steered boat to see the fireworks from the canal.  We were all pretty bundled up for Florida - it was COLD out there!

The whole crew got a kick out of Patch, our captain, who treated us to songs and games as we steamed toward the viewing position.

The fireworks over Cinderella's castle, once they started, were truly spectacular - well worth the cold.

Syl was wowed by the display

Guess who was waiting back on the dock to greet us?!!  Peter Pan himself! 

By the time we got back to our hotel - the Animal Kingdom Lodge - we were all ready for bed.

Many more photos to follow...