December Update

what happened to December? it's been super busy this month. mostly in a good way.

first of all, there's an update on our offer for the house up north. the bank agreed to a short sale (where they take our offer, if accepted, and write off the remaining amount of the balance that the current owner owes) but our realtor suggested that we up our offer. we did, but not by much. we're still waiting to hear if our offer is accepted. not sure why the bank is taking this long getting back to us. maybe they want to wait until after the holidays or more likely waiting to see if a better offer comes in. whatever the case may be, we are in no hurry and I personally would love to wait until spring.

We left on the 15th for Florida. Steven flew out from California and met us there.

Our first day there was really laid back. we had gotten in late the night before and everyone slept in. we ended up going to Downtown Disney late afternoon.

A brief stop in the lego store. Steven was a big time lego fanatic and he loved this display. it was like being in a candy store - for one price you can fill a cup with any pieces of lego you wanted. he would have loved to do that 15 years ago!

and then dinner at Planet Hollywood. note - the first day of the trip and they're already tired of having their picture taken and I really didn't take that many pictures!


We spent two days at Universal

The highlight of Universal is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The best ride of the day - Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey! I do not like roller coasters or rides that jerk. the boys did have to talk me into going on this ride and though it's not a roller coaster it does jerk and spin, but it was oh so worth it!
and of course, the visit would not be complete without some butterbeer. It was actually pretty good but not something I could drink a lot of.


We spent one day at Disney World and the boys decided to skip it and it was a good thing they did. they would not have been too happy doing the park hopping. we did three parks in one day. Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom.

We had one rainy, gloomy day and decided to do some shopping. we first went to a flea market and then to an outlet mall. it took us a while to figure out why there was such a traffic jam at the mall. we totally forgot that it was the Saturday before Christmas. I guess that's what happens when you're on vacation - the brain stops working.

We got home on the 21st and I still had a few christmas gifts to buy and grocery shopping to do. since then, we've been constantly on the move. We've had Christmas Eve and Christmas family get-togethers, a funeral, and a christmas party with friends. now we have time to just relax and enjoy one more week of Steven's visit.