The first party of the season

My friend Kaley is basically my own personal Martha Stewart, if Martha loved Pottery Barn. She throws the most amazing parties. From the crafty invitations to the gorgeous decorations to the incredible food, not a single details is overlooked and I love it! Kaley always hosts a small Christmas dinner party on the first Saturday of December, and it's a lovely way to kick off the month. (Check out last year's!) This year, she made it a luncheon, but we were all having such a great time that we stayed until 8 p.m. That's how good her parties are.

Literally everything on the menu was delicious. Layered crespelle, smoked tri-tip, pears with cheese and fig jam, goat-cheese stuffed chicken, saffron risotto, bruschetta, homemade ciabatta bread ... it was all fantastic.

For dessert, we indulged in numerous trips to the hot chocolate bar. How cute was that idea?

Ah, and one of my favorite sights -- men in a kitchen.

Kaley had a babysitter come to the house to entertain Jake and Gabe while we ate and played games. It was nice to have some adult time without being away from my baby (I'm so not ready for that yet).

Jake wasn't sure what to think of the reindeer antlers.

And to top it all off, Duane and Kaley sent us home with a big basket full of Christmas goodies. Thanks again for the fun day, you two!

Wrapping up Florida

We reserved the last day of our vacation for some good old-fashioned R&R. After a lazy morning, we headed to the pool for an afternoon swim.

That night, my brothers picked the T-Rex restaurant for dinner. It came complete with a digging site and life-sized dinosaurs that moved and roared.

We ate in the blue ice cave, which featured a meteor shower every fifteen minutes. When the meteor shower started, the cave turned red, the dinosaurs roared, and thunder sounded throughout the room. This was all well and good unless you happened to be a sleeping 2-month-old. Poor Jakey woke up from his nap terrified. But really, who can blame him? If I fell asleep in my mom's arms and then woke up in a meteor shower, I'd be scared, too. Luckily, his Uncle Joshie got him laughing fairly quickly by making funny faces while balancing chicken on his nose. Leave it to Josh, I tell you.

That night, Matt and I had our first outing sans baby -- across the street to Target to grab a dessert. And would you believe, we were in Florida! Which meant we were in the South! Which meant there were cartons of Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream in the Target freezer! This may have inspired celebratory fist pumps and happy dances, which may have led to interesting looks from fellow shoppers. But nothing was more interesting than that deliciousness in our mouths that night.

And then the next morning we packed up, hopped on an airplane, and made it home to California. The end!

The last bit of Disney magic

We decided to spend our final Disney World night taking in the magic at the Magic Kingdom. Matt, Christian, Matthew and I sneaked over during my family's afternoon nap to get some pictures, Jake's silhouette, and fastpasses before catching the dancing lights at Hollywood Studios.

After watching lights at Hollywood Studios, we returned to the Magic Kingdom to see the sky light up behind the castle.

We then ate Disney churros (um, also better at Disneyland. Weird, right?) while we watched the castle change outfits countless times during The Magic, the Memories and You show.

Shortly thereafter, the electrical parade came rolling down the street.

Please love the above picture of Cinderella heading to her castle in a pumpkin. Anyway. Once all the shows were over, we caught a few last-minute rides and posed with the castle before heading down Main Street one last time.

Christian climbed the stairs in the train station for a final look at his domain. Seriously, he owns Disney World.  Thanksgiving is definitely a brave time to head to Orlando, and I know there are others who went at the exact same time we did that spent their visit in two+ hour lines and overwhelmed by crowds. But thanks to Christian's expertise, planning, and running across parks to secure fast passes for everyone, we were able to ride everything multiple times and never waited for more than twenty minutes. Crowds? What crowds? Thanks, Kiken. You made the vacation.

We boarded the ferry and were enjoying our ride to the parking lot when we noticed that 9-year-old Kaleb and 5-year-old Gabe were both silently crying. We asked Kaleb why and he responded, "It was just so wonderful!" They weren't whiny tears, but happy-because-we-loved-it-so-much-and-sort-of-sad-that-it's-over-now tears. How cute is that? We asked 6-year-old Josh if he was going to cry, too, and he laughed a hearty "No." Then, as we watched Disney World fade into the distance, our little jokester Joshie turned toward Kaleb and said:

"Don't worry, Kaleb. You're never going to see it again."

Classic.

So sweet, right?

One final look at the second-happiest place on earth. Thanks for the memories, Mom and Dad!

Best early Christmas present ever.