Checketts Family News...: Merry Christmas 2013

Well, it's now February, and I'm just getting around to posting about our Christmas vacation. So, I will try to recap everything... :)

Since we were going to be in Florida for Christmas this year, Santa decided to visit our house early. We had our big "Christmas Eve" dinner on Friday Dec. 20th, with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, rolls, etc. Then we watched the Christmas nativity on the LDS church website, relaxed, & played some games.

Our Christmas Eve dinner

Ready for Christmas morning...

(Our) Christmas morning... ready to open presents...

The next morning, we got up & opened all our presents (one of my favorite parts is when the kids open all their presents from each other. They use their own money & we take them shopping to buy stuff for their siblings--nothing big, just a little thoughtful gift. They love it & are always so excited). We didn't buy a lot for the kids this year, since our big family gift was a 2-week trip to Florida, Disney World, etc. But they each got a couple new outfits, a gift card to a book store, and 1 fun thing or toy, along with some stocking stuffers, treats, and new pajamas. After we opened all our gifts, we had a big breakfast of waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, & fruit salad. Then we hung out, played with the new gifts, and finished up the last bit of packing for our trip, then loaded up the van & off we went.

Our flight was leaving from Buffalo, NY on Dec. 22nd, early in the morning, but we kept hearing weather reports that our area was going to get hit with a big storm--snow, ice, etc. So we decided to drive to Buffalo the day before our flight, just to be on the safe side! Boy, were we glad we did that!!! That night, our area got pounded with a terrible ice storm, causing power outages that lasted anywhere from 8 hours up to a week in some places. There were lots of damaged trees, broken branches, accidents, downed power lines, etc. Buffalo got some of that weather too, so we were worried that our flight would be cancelled, but we lucked out & everything went fine.

The shoveling this year is never ending! Yuck!

When we left Canada, the weather was cold, snowy, icy, & miserable. We were happy to leave all of that behind in exchange for the sunny, warm 85* weather in Florida!!! Once we landed, we picked up our rental van, got the keys to the house we were renting, picked up some groceries, had some pizza for dinner & headed to bed.

Over the next 2 weeks, we had an awesome time playing at a few of the Disney World parks for several days (we went to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and the Animal Kingdom). We also went to the beach a couple times, we drove to see the Orlando LDS Temple on Sunday after church, we went miniature golfing, ate at all our favorite restaurants that we miss, swam every day in the pool at our house, watched a couple movies, and just had a wonderful, relaxing, warm & sunny family vacation! It was a great ending to 2013, and a wonderful beginning to the new year! :)