This Christmas The Braun/Harris Family took a adventure down
to Disney World. Tess knew we were going on vacation but she had no idea where
we were going. She opened her first Christmas presents at the airport and it
was a set of ears and a couple of books based on several rides in the park. She
was so excited when she saw the ears that she was ready to get on the plane and
get the party started. Once she put the ears on she barely took them off. 
We started our vacation in the Magic Kingdom but we only had time to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and Big thunder Mountain before we had to head to Dinner and a show. We knew by our experience in LegoLand that she would love Rollercoasters but I guess I didn’t know how much. She wanted to do every ride multiple times and because it was Christmas time in the Park and everyone was off school the park was ridiculous
We headed over to Hollywood Studios for dinner, my mom had
booked a character dinner. Clayton and I weren’t sure how Tess would react to
the characters because she hasn’t been real keen on them in the past. She
surprised everyone when she saw goofy through the window and wanted a picture.
We got in line immediately and took a picture. She broke the ice and all she
wanted to do after that was take pictures with all the characters that she saw.
We waited in some of the lines but if they were outrageous we moved on. 
As we ate dinner more characters would move around the
restaurant and she had to take a picture with every one of them. I think this
was a good way to start our Disney vacation because she was able to see a bunch
of the characters and decide on her own terms if she wanted to take pictures or
not without waiting in a line and then get up there and her deciding that she
wasn’t ready for a picture. 
After dinner we had reserved seating at the Fantasmic show, which was the only night time light show that we saw the entire time we were there. She enjoyed it even though there were a couple scary parts. She knew magic Mickey from some of her shows and she was happy to see all the princesses. After the show we went back to the hotel to unpack and sleep so that we could get up bright and early and do it again the next morning.
Epcot
Tess was so excited to get to the park that she headed out
down the hall on her own. Each time we left the room we had to make sure that
we had everything because it was a long walk and no one wanted to do it again
unless absolutely necessary. 
We had several fast passes that my mom had pre-scheduled along with a couple extra that my dad had scored the night before so we were set to go on all the rides that we wanted. Tess was really excited to go on as many rollercoasters as possible. We spaced them out throughout the day with a couple small things in between. I think her favorite was space mountain, I was a little worried about her siting along and it being in the dark but she loved it and would have gone again if time allowed.
We also spent some time meeting the characters in Epcot.
There was a location that had a bunch of characters in one place and the line
was not too long so we ventured in and she was thrilled.
We also found a photo booth at the end of one of the rides and she decided that she wanted to take some pictures. We decided to crash her pictures and make it a family occasion. These photo booth pictures are included in the photo package that my mom bought so the pictures come directly to the Disney app which was pretty cool.
We spent most of the day at Epcot riding the rides and
walking around the countries. Tess was not too thrilled with the countries and
if we go back with just her we will probably not go back to the country section
of Epcot until she gets older. On our way out we of course had to get the
obligatory Epcot family pictures.
Magic Kingdom
I don’t have that many pictures from our day in the Magic
Kingdom mainly because I was enjoying the day with my family. We started our
day off with the obligatory Castle family picture. We all had our Disney shirts
on for our Christmas eve picture!
We saw the main street fire truck as we were walking in so Tess and Clayton had to stop and take a quick photo. Disney used to have a cool place where you could look at all the firefighter patches in a case on the wall and you could purchase a Magic Kingdom patch, but it was been converted to a meeting place for a magic game they now provide where you pay and receive clues. We were a little disappointed when we walked in.
Tess and I rode the carousel, the line moved pretty fast and
the ride wasn’t that long. Everyone else was waiting for something else so we
snuck in and wait in the line. Everywhere we go no matter if there are a
million other things to do she sees a carousel, she wants to ride it.
Most of the family also rode it’s a small world, this isn’t my favorite ride but it’s a staple of Disney. One of the books that we bought Tess was based on this ride and it’s nice to do it once. Now when we go back we won’t have to do it again. The sad thing is this is a pretty simple ride, not much to it and they really haven’t kept it up. The dolls need some maintenance and some of the effects weren’t working.
I love how Disney decorates for every time of year, but Christmas is my favorite. I love the Castle at night.
Animal Kingdom
Most mornings we had to wait for a bus to get to each park,
sometimes we would get to the bus stop right when a bus was leaving or had just
been there. This morning we knew it wouldn’t be too long since we were staying
practically in the Animal Kingdom Park. Tess also knew it wasn’t going to take
that long to get to the park.
We took a lot of family pictures today at the Animal Kingdom, probably because it was Christmas. I think that being at the Animal Kingdom on Christmas was the best because there isn’t that much to do at the park and we needed to be in Disney Springs for Dinner later that afternoon.
We started off with the Safari and I still love seeing all the animals. I love that Tess loves animals as much as I do. We could probably do this safari every day that we were there. The animals were all out and about moving around so it was a great time of day. We even had to stop the tour a couple of times because the animals got in the way and wouldn’t move.
After the Safari Tess had her first ice cream of the whole trip. I don’t know what it is but ice cream just tastes different at Disney, I think it’s the shape.
We found some characters while we were walking around the Animal Kingdom. Tess had been talking about Pluto for a couple of days so we knew that we had to find him before we left. She was so excited when it was her turn to take a picture that she just couldn’t contain her smiles.
Our last stop before heading out was the new Pandora ride, we had some time to kill so both Tess and I decided to pose for the camera. Like mother like daughter we know how to turn it on for the camera.
We had a short and sweet day at the Animal Kingdom but it
was action packed.
Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Studios is probably my second favorite park behind
The Magic Kingdom. I wish they wouldn’t have gotten rid of the sorcerer’s hat
but what can you do? We took several family pictures in front of the only
iconic buildings left, tower of terror and the Chinese theater. Tess was done
with picture taking she was ready for some rides.
The kids minus Tess rode the rockin roller coaster, I can’t wait for Tess to be tall enough to ride this ride. I think she will love it. She hasn’t gone upside down yet but I think she will enjoy it as much as she has enjoyed all the other rides. All the kids went on Tower of Terror. As you can see I am watching Tess to make sure she doesn’t freak out because we are free falling and she looks a little scared but when we got off she said she loved it. She was like that wasn’t the tower of terror that was the tower of greatness.
We saw a couple of shows and did a couple of other rides throughout the day. Tess enjoyed herself. She had to pose next to the car that was in Cars and she had to take a picture with the Star Wars guys. Overall we had a great day at Hollywood Studios.
Magic Kingdom
Our last full day at Disney was for catching up on things we
hadn’t been able to ride and do anything a second time that you wanted. We
split up and some of us stayed in the Magic Kingdom all day and some went back
to Hollywood Studios. Tess rode Dumbo and some of the rides for littler kids
which were fun and a little break from the bigger rides we had been riding. We
rode the Toy Story ride again and caught up on some shows that we had missed
that we thought Tess would enjoy. 
The first time that we saw Stitch the Pictures did not turn
out, the photographer did not have her settings correct. So we went back and
were able to take some pictures and these turned out better than the originals.
The whole Harris Family likes Stitch but Tess and Clayton love him. 
One of Tess’s Christmas Presents was an appointment at the
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. The family had a Princess Dinner that night so Tess
had an appointment to be transformed into a princess for our dinner. She loved
the experience and loved getting her hair and make-up done.
We headed on over to the Princess Dinner from Magic Kingdom to Epcot, in the Monorail. This was the first and only time that Tess was able to ride the Monorail, we had been riding buses the whole time. She had to first take a picture with Belle and then the other princesses would make their way to the table. At one point during the dinner there was a princess parade, she and the other princess walked around the restaurant strutting their stuff. She was so happy to see the
different princesses.
After the Princess Dinner we made a quick change into our normal clothes because she was tired of being a princess, its hard work.
We headed out the next morning, back to the real world. We
had the best time and Tess asks just about once a week when we can go back.
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