Disney

We are here! We love our hotel. We are struggling a tiny bit with jet lag. We are going to bed early. We missed the fireworks the first couple of nights. And we have been getting up early, 4-5am. It makes for a early start at the parks. We were there to open the park at Magic Kingdom. We had a fabulous first day at the Magic Kingdom. The park wasn't crowded at all and we waited no more than 10 minutes for any ride. At the last minute we were able to get reservations and surprise the kids with lunch at Cinderella's. They all really enjoyed it. The princesses were so pretty and sweet and our kids jumped at the chance to get their pictures made with them. We have seen so many pretty little princesses, especially when we had lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table. All of us have been talking about bringing our own little princess to Disney one day.

We spent yesterday at Epcot. The kids loved riding Test Track. We made it all the way around the world showcase and rode the boat ride in Norway in honor of Will's best friend, Magnus from Norway. We ate lunch in Great Britian and we all loved shopping at the store in Japan. We were so tired by the time we got back to the room. The kids all got in bed at 8 to watch a movie and Bill and I went out to dinner in the hotel. Cole said Will and Abbey fell asleep right after we left.

Today we will venture to Animal Kingdom. The kids and Bill are still asleep and it is 6:25am. Whoo hooooo. Maybe they will be able to stay up a little later tonight.

Where there's a will...

Mekdes has been collecting things to send to Ethiopia ever since she started working for us. Today was the day that she had everything ready to send. Despite my worries that it wouldn't all fit in the car and that it would be waaaay too much money to ship it, we set out this morning for the cargo place. Nevermind that neither of us knew where we were going. I got directions while on the way from a friend of hers and we made it without getting lost. She ended up sending 150 kilos of clothes, bedding, and who knows what else to Ethiopia for 1273 QR, which is about $350.00 (almost the total amount of her Christmas present from us). She has a heart of gold and I can't imagine the delight when her family gets four huge containers of stuff. We stopped on the way back for a few pictures of Doha on a pretty day.

And YES, it is only about 9 hours until we get picked up to go to the airport.

SCROLL down to see new pictures added to Christmas post.

Today

Today I...

-cleaned out closets. Mekdes is getting ready to ship some big cargo containers full of clothes to Ethiopia.

-got a manicure and pedicure.

-drove a kid to the orthodontist and then went to the grocery to buy enchilada ingredients.

-made enchiladas for same kid for Spanish class "cooking show" tomorrow

-discovered we have a ticket for turning right on red...did not know it was illegal here. The ticket is a whopper and we have to take care of it before we leave the country.

-decorated cut out sugar cookies. I baked yesterday, after saying "I am not baking this year!"

-made goody bags for young son's class.

What I did NOT do today:

- pack!

WE LEAVE IN 27 hours. I gotta get packing girls!