Christmas Day Surprise

The past few days have been a blur of cleaning and prepping for Christmas, followed by the flurry of activity going to Christmas parties and hosting some of my family here at our house on Christmas Day. We got everything ready in time, even though being “ready” partially involved throwing piles of clutter into closed off rooms or into the garage. And after everyone left, well, it was right back to clearing out the mess of the day.

Despite the chaos, there was the beautiful quiet of early Christmas morning, when it was just the four of us in our pajamas, gathered in front of the tree downstairs, the girls smiles shining through in the dim light as they waited to open their presents.

It was a very Frozen Christmas for Cordy and Mira. They both fell in love with Disney’s Frozen (we all did, really), and they have been talking about how much they want to meet Elsa and Anna someday when we go back to Disney World, assuming the two princesses are still there.

They went to Disney for the first time earlier this year. It was a fantastic family vacation, and we promised them that we’d go back again in two or three years, when we could save up the money for a big trip again.

A couple of months ago, I found out about the Type-A Workshop being held at Walt Disney World this spring. I registered for the conference, hoping we’d be able to find a way for it to also work out as a family vacation as well. Aaron and I studied our finances and started putting money aside, hoping we could make it work. We didn’t tell the kids, just in case it didn’t work out.

But it has come together and we’ve made the reservations for Disney. Aaron and I continued to keep the secret, planning to surprise the kids with the news on Christmas Day. Do you know how hard it is for me to keep a secret that big? I nearly slipped in front of the kids several times.

So early on Christmas morning, Cordy and Mira came downstairs to find a giant box under the tree, and they asked to open that one first, even before their gifts from Santa.

I think you could say our surprise was a success (apologies for my shaky-cam amateur videography skills):

They spent the afternoon showing off their dresses to family and telling them about how we’re going to Disney. They didn’t know at first that all of the family were in on the surprise until they started opening their presents and noticed that their great aunts and grandmother gave them Disney gift cards, too. (Aaron and I also received Disney gift cards to help cover the trip.)

It’s official: we’re going to Disney in the spring!

How was your Christmas?