Joey Z.: A Very Disney Christmas!

Disney is a wonderful place to go at Christmas. For me, I was super excited to take Joey to the Very Merry Christmas Party. They close down the park and sell only a few thousand tickets so the park is not near as crowded and the free hot chocolate and cookies were great. Bill kept saying he was going to try to eat enough cookies to pay for the special tickets, hahaha! Anyway, here is Bill and Joey at the entrance to the party. Joey would not smile for the pic and so we plopped him in the stroller walked inside and.....

The kid fell ASLEEP!!! Special tickets at special prices and he falls asleep before seeing any of it!!!!

For a minute we thought maybe we should just go back the the room and call it a night. Until we walked by Pirates of the Caribbean and saw it was COMPLETELY empty...so Bill and I climbed on board our own boat with Joey still fast alseep on Bills shoulder. The ride was fun and Joey did not wake up once...not even when he got completely splashed with water all over his legs. Later on when he woke up he told us that a "pirate shot his knee while he was asleep" so he must have remembered something from the ride. We laugh because Joey will still tell anyone who asks how a pirate shot his knee and he will point to his knee and say "See right here, a pirate shot me!"

Walking to the Haunted Mansion we stopped for hot chocolate and cookies and ran into some old friends Woody and Bullseye. It did not take much for us to wake Joey up when he saw them.

FINALLY we scored a ride on Dumbo. Can you believe we have been to the Magic Kingdom this many times and never had ridden it. The lines are always WAY too long for a high-energy boy!!

A great smiley face while watching the parade.

Joey and I walking around the life-size gingerbread house. Joey is not usually easily startled but when this door opened he was shocked and so was I!! Can you believe there is a store in there?!

The trains under the trees had to be Joeys favorites, of course. He thought this one at the America pavilion in EPCOT was his Polar Express and he was NOT happy to leave it behind.

Joey was so very extra-special excited to see Scrooge McDuck. We had been watching Mickeys Twice Upon a Christmas and so he was well acquainted with him. In fact, Joey ran up, hugged him and kept hugging for a long time...long enough we had to step in and pull him off.

Then Scrooge started playing with Joey's hat and he thought that was wonderful

It was VERY HOT so we thought Joey might like to jump in the fountains with the other kids...but our little guy mostly liked studying how he could make ripples with his foot in the puddles. I love his little quirks, what a smart boy!!!

One of his EPCOT favorites , the sidewalk lights. He ran and ran around watching these lights having a blast. And yes before you ask he is in PJs, long story involving leaking pee, our last diaper, running out of dry clothes and a lady calling me a racist and saying she was going to beat me up (I am still not sure why she was so mad)...but hey what is a trip to Disney without running into one grouch.

The Disney Santa was the BEST I have ever seen. This is a pic I took, not as good as the professional photos but I think Joey looks huge in Santa's lap. I love this pic because it shows just how tall he got this year.

This was a great photo spot at the base of the main street tree, a bench with Roy Disney and Minnie Mouse. I tried to get a pic of Joey sitting there smiling, but guess what there is a train at the base of that tree so Joey would not turn around, he was WAY more interested in the train...a good memory pic anyway!!!

Joey catching the "snow" that was falling during the light show. Funny feeling for snow to fall when it is in the 80's.

Joey as Boba Fett at the Star Wars Exhibit in MGM

It was so hot that we decided our last day to head over to Blizzard Beach. Joey LOVED it!!! Here he is carrying his tube "all by myself's"

And sliding down all by himself...which incidentally drove me crazy but he loved it!!! He must have gone down this slide about 20 times at least. And has asked to go back ever since.

Sliding down another slide by himself. He also loved floating on the lazy river ride with us.

This awesome pic was taken in Tomorrowland where Buzz hangs out. He was going to take a break and grabbed Joey's hand on the way. Joey was so very thrilled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!