Our New Year family gathering began early the morning of Wednesday the 29th of December. Ed, Ashley, Aubree and I poured into our car and started driving to Florida. We went to the family favorite Sundale Donuts for breakfast on the road as we watched the sun rise on our way east out of Houston.We arrived at the Marriott Lakeshore Reserve in Orlando and were very pleased with the townhouse we had booked to stay in on this trip. The property is a new one for Marriott and we feel pampered already. We settled in and did some grocery shopping before heading to the airport to pick up Autumn, Derrick and Edison. Their flight didn't arrive until 11:15pm Florida time which meant Edison had taken a long nap on the flight and wasn't about to go back to sleep. He wanted to explore the new digs and play with his aunts and grandparents but we just wanted to get to sleep!
Edison finally went to sleep and slept in on Friday morning so grandma and grandpa stayed with him while the young adults got up early to be the first in line at Epcot in Disney World. They were able to get in the rides that they wanted to and then we all met up later at Epcot for an evening of fun.
We got Edison his first pair of Mickey ears but he was more interested in eating them than wearing them.
Now we realized that Disney World was a popular place this time of year, but we did not realized that each of the Disney parks has a capacity limit that is usually met this time of year. Autumn did the planning for us so we didn't try to get into the Magic Kingdom on New Year's Eve because it was closed at least 4 days that we know of, but I was still a little surprised at how full Epcot became.
The first thing we did on New Year's Eve morning was head to the Character Place. It was worth the wait to see Edison's reaction to Mickey and Minnie and pulling Pluto's whiskers.
He also got to pat Donald Duck's bill. 
Me.....I love Goofy!
We all went on the future ride inside the big Epcot dome. When we were asked the questions about what we would like our future to be Ed was surprised when I answered that I would rather "wing it" than have a plan.
We brought in the New Year a little early and then everyone went to sleep except me. Funny how things change with a baby in the house. ^_^ Actually, Edison went to be first and then Ed was next and then everyone else. I waited until after the fireworks display put on by Marriott. I went outside to view what I could but the fireworks originated on the other side of the Marriott tower so I didn't get to see all the lower fireworks but everything that went up high was spectacular. It was just what I wanted to bring in the new year. That lasted about 20 minutes and then I returned to the dark, quiet townhouse and went to sleep.I am looking forward to another wonderful year.
