Blessings to Celebrate..

We have grown closer to the parish here and as a result decided to have Cole baptized here in Florida. We thought Christmas would be a nice time of the year and elected to have the ceremony while Mom, Dad and Grandma Londt were here too. As Cole's "official" Godparents live in Wisconsin and Fort Wayne, we had our good friends Ed and Amy Gendusa act as sponsors. Amy was kind enough to lend me her son's baptismal outfit as Cole was busting the seams out of the one we had (which had been worn by my grandfather Sacher & Avery).

The ceremony was very nice. Father Foley (originally from Ireland) conducted the service. He used a shell from one of the local beaches to pour the holy water over Cole's head --- as Avery attempted to blow out the Pascal candle (she kept singing happy birthday to Jesus!).

Christmas? But it's 80 degrees!!!

We talked my parents into driving down with Great Grandma Dorothy to celebrate Christmas in warm, sunny Florida. We spent the better part of the week in shorts and enjoying each other's company. Here are some of our favorite pictures from Christmas 2006 and the family visit...

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E (Awesome)

As has become somewhat of a tradition for us, we spent a long weekend in early December at Walt Disney World. Mike's immediate family (Dave, Carol and Nicole) joined us to celebrate. This was our "Christmas" so we splurged by having lunch at Cinderella's Castle, took in an early evening performance of Cirque du Soliel's La Nuba (Avery thought is was "totally cool") and even did the luau dinner at the Polynesian. We all had a wonderful time... here are some of our favorite pictures from that weekend.

Princess Jasmine stopping by our table to say hello to Princess Avery while we were dining at Cinderella's Royal Table. Also stopping by were Snow White, Belle and the Fairy Godmother. We had an "exclusive" meeting with Cinderella too. The food was great and meeting the princesses was a moment I don't think Avery will soon forget.

Nikki, Mike and Avery all enjoyed the Tea Cups

Avery hanging out (and on) Grandpa just before the Tiki Room Show -- one of Nana's favorites.

Breakfast at Club Mickey's in our hotel had its benefits - great food (waffles shaped like Mickey Mouse) and you get to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto all within 1 hour.

Avery was pampered at the "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique". This is a little salon of sorts where little girls can go have their nails painted, hair done and fair-dust applied. Avery was into it for about 30 minutes and was then ready to split. She loved the "hair effects" -- blue is her favorite color! She wore her Snow White costume from Halloween for added effect.

This display was in our hotel lobby - is it made ENTIRELY of chocolate with the exception of the Christmas Tree. Avery's synaposis: "can we take it with us?"