Saturday, December 25, 2021- Christmas and "Disney Eve"

      We've been planning this trip for a while and it has gone through several changes.  Rather than having a graduation party, Emma decided she'd rather go to Disney World.  So that was supposed to happen when she graduated from high school, and we were originally looking at going in her senior year in December 2020.  COVID changed those plans and postponed them for a year.  We had asked Anna and Noah to come with us, but they were unable to because of their employment obligations.  We understood and invited Scott's parents instead.  They wanted to come, but were first nervous about COVID restrictions and dangers, and then concerned about Dad's health, so they ended up telling us that they couldn't come.  We then invited Julie's parents, so that's our travel party now. 

     We always plan our trips in advance with quite a bit of detail, and we enjoy the process and looking forward with anticipation.  In spite of the large number of times we've been to Disney, we spent a long time learning about the changes in the park.  There have been a lot of them.  It feels like you almost have to take a class to go to the parks now.  Most of our research was done while watching YouTube on our living room TV.  Molly from "AllEars.net," was one of our favorites, and more recently, Tom on WDW News Today.  

     This year, we started referring to Christmas as "Disney Eve."  Thursday was our last day of school and we spent the evening with Julie's folks.  Friday was Christmas Eve and we went to Scott's parents for dinner.  Then on Saturday, Christmas Day, Anna and Noah came to our house for breakfast and we had our Christmas with them.  Santa had brought some things for Abby, of course, and she spent until 4:00 opening them.  It wasn't that she had so many, but rather it was because she would open one and then play with it and enjoy it for a while before moving on to the next one.  It was really a nice way to do it.  Meanwhile, from about 1:00 on, Scott and Julie were going over the packing list and checking it twice in order to get things together for an early departure on Sunday.  We plan on meeting the Wrights at the airport at about 6:00 AM and hopefully will be departing around 8:00.