The worst part about going on vacation is that eventually you have to come home again. And check your credit card balance. Mostly the second one, really…

Visiting Disney World during Christmastime has long been a staple excursion of ours, and after a few years ago making a proper trip out of mid-December, I’m not sure if I would have it any other way. This year ended up being our longest trip to date – a full five days – and when we first arrived I found myself wondering just how long of a trip was long enough???

As it turns out, aside from asking my bank account for its opinion, five days still ain’t it! 😛

We knew that this was going to be a special kind of trip, not only because of the holidays and all, but also in that it was the first time that we brought our entire family over to Disney. And as correctly predicted, there were certainly parts that ended up being quite the challenge, but we also learned a few things (e.g. boat travel is superior to bus travel because you don’t have to fold up your stroller on a boat!) and I think also just confirmed in our own minds that visiting Disney World as much as we do wouldn’t have to be one of those things that changes as our family grows bigger and bigger…

Though I’m definitely not looking forward to paying for five annual passes in a few years once they all surpass that ripe age of three!

It’s funny because even having gone as much as we have in the last decade-plus of our lives, I still find myself leaving with things that I wish we had gotten a chance to do. We didn’t make it over to Animal Kingdom this time because we sacrificed that day to spend a little time around the hotel. I also would’ve liked spending more time around the hotel, particularly just drinking spiked hot chocolate and soaking up the atmosphere in the lobby!

We also did very few actual attractions, mostly because with two infants and a toddler, it’s tricky to juggle all of those kids right now. And I think we know that it won’t always be that way, so instead this time we just focused on relaxation and going at our own pace, and enjoying the holiday decorations, and trying to make sure that the kids – mostly Christopher – got to do things that they would enjoy, too. I’m sure that our touring plans for the foreseeable future will likely change as well, but already we’ve found ourselves coming across new things to enjoy with Christopher that we’d taken for granted in the past so I don’t see why that trend wouldn’t continue as the twins grow older and eventually start to explore the World for themselves. 😀

Next year is going to be an interesting year because I can honestly see us going over to Disney more than ever, simply because now we know we can do it. Sure, it’s a struggle when the twins need to be fed every few hours or when the toddler slips into his tantrum mode and doesn’t even want to go see Mickey Mouse, but there are also those magical moments like when said toddler claps at the end of fireworks even though he’s afraid of them or when one of the green army men from Toy Story spots you resting on a bench and comes by to thumbs up the quietly sleeping children … those are the things we remember a lot more than the struggling moments.

So I’ll wrap this post up with a small collection of photos that didn’t make it into this week’s vacation posts. The trip was grand, and I can hardly believe that actual Christmas will be here in only a week now.

My, how time flies when you’re jingling bells and drinking gingerbread lattes at the most magical place on earth… 😉