More Disney Fun at the Magic Kingdom Dance Party!

Had to add this. We were at the Magic Kingdom at 2am on December 31st. They had a big dance party going on in front of Cinderella's Castle. My son Michael decided to partake!

Family Vacation to Disney World!

Michael, Brian and Mallory at Downtown Disney

My family and I just returned from a six day vacation to Disney World this morning. It was our third family trip there, in addition to random visits when we have had soccer tournaments in Tampa or Orlando.

I have been wanting to go back for a while now. My daughter, Mallory, who will graduate from The Ohio State University this Spring, and I were talking about a graduation present a couple of months ago. She mentioned wanting to go back to Disney World, and we decided to go over the Christmas Holidays as the summer would be very difficult to go with every one's schedules being so hard to coordinate.

For those of you with older children, you probably already know that when the kids reach college age, getting time to go on family vacations becomes more and more difficult. Mallory is 22, Brian is 20 and Michael is 17. If you can go with your kids when they are older, it ends up being a very special time. For my wife Tammy and I, this week was great!

We stayed at the Polynesian. Great room with enough beds for all of us. We visited all the parks and spent New Year's Eve at Hollywood Studios. We took advantage of the Extra Magic Hours, staying at the Magic Kingdom on Thursday and Hollywood Studios on Friday until 3am!

Our favorite ride-Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios. Brian had the high score amongst us, over 200,000!

The kids rode Everest in the Wild Kingdom and The Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios several times, but once was enough for Tammy and I. We also rode Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion several times

We had a chance to dine at several of the Disney World Restaurants. Our favorites were Artist's Point at the Wilderness Lodge, Tusker House at the Animal Kingdom and the Biergarten at the German village at Epcot.

We are so happy we could do this vacation as a family. These opportunities are going to become rarer and rarer as the kids get older. It's a special experience when we vacation together!

What I Got for Christmas!

Quite a haul for me this year. Definitely a Cincinnati Reds themed Christmas. What did I get? Starting with non-Reds stuff:

A very nice long sleeved casual shirt
An electric carving knife (no more wrestling the turkey with a dull knife for me!)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (can't get an e-version for my Kindle)
The latest FourFourTwo and World Soccer magazines
The Zen of Zombie by Scott Kenemore (to satisfy my need for more Zombie fiction)
Several Moleskine Notebooks
The 2010 APBA Baseball Game Card Set
Sour Patch Kids
Lifesaver Gummies

And now for my Cincinnati Reds themed gifts:

The Wire-to-Wire Reds by John Erardi and Joel Luckhaupt (story of the 1990 Reds)
The Comeback Kids by Mark Schmetzer and Joe Jacobs (story of the 2010 Reds-autographed too!)
A game-used Orlando Cabrera bat
A trip to the Reds Hall of Fame/Team Store to pick out an authentic Reds jersey of my choice! (Thanks to my wife! What should I get? A Joey Votto or a classic Johnny Bench?)

And pictured here...a framed replica scorecard from the game Jay Bruce hit the bottom of the ninth home-run to clinch the 2010 National League Central Division title. Includes a picture of Jay reaching home plate. Thank you to my brother and sister in-law!

Off to the Happiest Place on Earth tomorrow with the family! Disney World through New Years!
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