Christmas in Florida

At the last minute we decided that as long as Ryan had the time off and we weren't going to have any visitors for Christmas we might as well go somewhere fun. We started looking into it the morning of December 23rd and discovered that Daytona Beach is only a 7.5 hour drive from Charlotte. That sounded pretty good to us and so we moved Christmas up a day so that Santa could bring our family a trip to Florida (Ryan had to be back at work on the 28th and we wanted to be there long enough to make the drive worth it, but we didn't want to bring all the Christmas presents with us in the car).

So, later on the 23rd we told Riley it was Christmas Eve and at first he looked at us a little suspiciously, but when we said that meant he got to open a present tonight and that Santa was coming tomorrow he said "It is... really - all right!" and started galloping around the house. We threw together our Chritmas Eve dinner complete with Martinelli's Sparking Cider (the boys loved that part), read Luke 2, read an illustrated book of the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and opened one present. I thought the boys might be too excited to go to bed, but after explaining that Santa can't come until they are asleep they settled right down. (I couldn't believe that worked!).

So, "Christmas" morning (actually the 24th) Santa brought our family a trip to Florida, we finished our presents, had a special breakfast - Ryan's French Toast Delight - loaded the car and were off. The boys were awesome in the car thanks to a wonderful invention known as a portable DVD player. We only stopped once to get lunch.

We stayed at a resort called "The Cove on Ormand Beach." Santa picked great accommodations. We had a fabulous time playing on the beach, playing in the pool, then playing on the beach again. The boys loved building sand castles and burying Daddy in the sand and Mommy and Daddy loved relaxing and being warm.