Christmas Cutouts

I have wonderful memories of making and eating cutout cookies at Christmas as a child.  My mom would roll-out the dough and do all of the other hard work and my brother and I would do some decorating (but eventually that changes from fun to work and we would quit) and lots of eating.  Cutouts, as we have always called them, take much longer than any other cookie we usually have at Christmas so in recent years with everyone working and little ones to take care of...there hasn't been time to make them.

This year I had vacation time available and I sent Juliana, Ruslan and Wyatt to childcare for a few days the week of Christmas.  I made the dough and Mom came over to help.  Actually, Mom still did most of the hard work - rolling and making every scrap of dough into a yummy shape.  I was responsible for watching the oven and managing the cooling process.  Since the cookies are only in the oven 6 minutes, it is difficult to make these without someone to help so you can have batches moving quickly.

I baked cookies Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  Monday afternoon we made the cutouts.  Tuesday I started frosting and decorating.  And on Wednesday Juliana stayed home with me to help.  I started her with one tray of cookies - she selected teddy bears and horses from all of the shapes available and brown frosting.  I set her up with the tray of cookies, bowl of frosting, 2 age-appropriate knives for spreading the frosting (that were dropped, washed and returned several times during the frosting), and 2 bowls of sprinkles.  The bowls of sprinkles were refilled by request throughout the process, and she did use a lot if them.

It was a messy and long process to decorate that tray of cookies.  But it was just enough for her.  When she finished the last cookie, she proclaimed herself done with frosting, washed up and went to watch Playhouse Disney while I worked on the other cookies.  I hope that this is the start of happy memories of cutout cookies for another generation.  She was very pleased with her creations and when she saw me taking a picture of the tray, she insisted that I take one of her with her cookies.

A tray of completed cookies including one of Juliana's creations - yummy!

Disney Day #3

We spent Sunday at the Magic Kingdom.  As soon as we arrived on Main Street, I knew it was not a normal day.  The Park had just opened and there were people lined up along the parade route, odd since the parade is always in the afternoon and occasionaly in the evening as well.  Then as we walked further toward the castle we saw camera crews everywhere, including 2 elevated above the crowd.  Then we heard Disney cast members asking for volunteers to particpate in the festivities.  It turns out that they were filming their Christmas Day parade and concert for TV that day.  The concert was the Jonas Brothers and there were screaming tweens crowded around the stage.  We found out later that they had planned to be filming the past 2 days but the rain prevented it, so they were trying to get everything done in a very compressed time span.

We were turned toward Tomorrow Land since all paths around the castle were closed.  First stop Buzz Lightyear - always fun.  Although after riding Toy Story Mania, not nearly as good of a ride.  When we exited the ride we saw Chip-N-Dale and Juliana was so excited.  Our last trip to Disney when Juliana was 2, she had a day where she wasn't feeling well.  We were at Epcot and I had been visiting characters with her while the rest of the group was on Soarin' and Chip-N-Dale were the last characters in the room.  By the time she got to them so was in no mood for a picture.  The pictures we have from that trip are of her running from them with tears streaming down her face.  So she had spent the first two days of our trip looking  for them.

Then I went on Space Mountain - just one time.  And met Juliana and my mom in Fantasy Land where they were waiting in line for Donald and Dasiy.  Juliana was only interested in Daisy, but they were a package.

We braved the Dumbo line and rode Winnie the Pooh (she loved), Peter Pan (also loved) and then we headed to the Crystal Palace for our lunch reservation - lunch with Winnie the Pooh characters.

After lunch we went back to Fantasyland and rode It's a Small World which of course Juliana loved...Later im the day she asked if we could go ride little earth again.  I told her we were only allowed to ride one time.  By this point the stage area and parade festivities were ending and that crowd spilled out into the attraction areas making it suddenly more crowded.  We walked to Big Thunder Mountain for Fast Passes and while we waited for our time slot we went to the Tiki Room and waited in line to see Princess Jasmine.

Then back to Big Thunder Mountain - Juliana spent the whole ride huddled under my arm asking if the ride was almost over.  We hopped on the train to Toon Town and visited Mickey and Minnie's houses - I never knew that the fridge opened and the microwave had popped corn inside...never thought to play with the knobs and doors myself.  Juliana was much happier with the Barnstormer - smaller coaster - she came running off with a sudden burst of energy.

We wandered through the shops on Main Street and then headed back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

Disney Day #1 Pictures

My Disney Photopass CD arrived so I have her character pictures from the first day.

The Nutcracker and Random Juliana

We went to the Nutcracker on Sunday and I learned that I am not a fan of ballet...soooo boring. I would have fallen asleep if not for Juliana bouncing from my lap to her seat and back the whole time. 

Since our trip to Disney, Juliana questions whether people or animals are real.  For example, on the Safari at Animal Kingdom - real animals; Splash Mountain - not real animals.  So this conversation a few minutes into the ballet didn't surprise me.

Juliana: Are those real people?
Me: Yes
Juliana: Why aren't they talking?
Me: In ballet they tell the story through the dance and the music
Juliana: Will those people be able to talk when they are done?
Me: Yes

Apparently she was concerned that the stage was filled with people who couldn't talk.

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Thursday night as I was returning her bath towel to the bathroom, Juliana screamed and started crying.  I went running back to her room where she was standing on her bed holding her left foot in the air.  I scooped her up and looked at her foot which was scraped along the side.  I asked her what happened and through the tears she was able to say: I was jumping on my bed like a monkey and hurt my foot (said with tears and great drama).  After she calmed down she told me she wasn't going to jump on the bed any more.

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I have a shoebox that holds all of the ornaments Juliana has made over the years as well as some unbreable ornaments.  I gave that box to Juliana when it was time to decorate the tree.  Every few minutes I would hear a comment like - this is the most beautifull ornament...and sure enough it would be one with a picture of her.

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She is getting very demanding recently, especially when I am feeding the boys or getting them dressed.  Apparently she is going through another jealous period.  Most of the time she really loves her brothers.

Disney Day #2

We spent our 2nd day at Hollywood Studios.  Rain was in the forecast once again, but it only drizzled in the morning.   We arrived for the last 15 minutes of "extra magic hours" and ran to the back of the park to ride Toy Story Mania and get a Fast Pass for later (FP was gone for the day for this ride by mid-morning).  The ride is way fun.  I could have rode it over and over...hence the really long lines.

Then we rode Star Tours - Juliana hated it.  To cheer her up we went to the character area and saw Tigger and the characters from Up. 

After that it was time for our early lunch reservations at Hollywood and Vine - Playhouse Disney lunch with Annie and Leo from Little Einsteins and Jo-Jo and Goliath.

Juliana and my mom went to the Beauty and the Beast show and I rode Rock-N-Roller coaster a few times - taking advantage of the single rider line).  We saw some more characters and then waited for the Playhouse Disney show which Juliana loved.  We did some shopping and called it a day early.  When we got back to the hotel, everyone fell asleep and then we had a late dinner.

Disney Day 1

My mom took Juliana and me away to Disney World.  We left the boys home with Scott who had support from my Dad and Scott's parents (and they were in daycare Monday-Thursday during the day).

We left Pittsburgh early Friday morning.  When we boarded the flight Juliana insisted that she wanted to sit near the window.  She hopped up into her seat, buckled her seat belt and insisted that we both buckle up.  As I was still getting situated she suddenly got nervous - "put your arm around me", she said.  Then I reminded her that if she sat in the middle she could have Nonni and Mommy next to her; she eagerly changed seats at that point.  So we took turns keeping an arm around her for much of the flight.  I think part of the problem was that we didn't bring her car seat onboard; she isn't used to sitting in a big seat with the seat belt.  The descent into Orlando was bumpy and her ears hurt so we were happy to be on the ground.

We headed to baggage claim and Juliana made herself comfortable on the luggage cart.

We loaded up the bags in the rental car and headed to the hotel.  This was our 3rd time staying at the Pop Century resort - it is one of the Disney value resorts.  After checking in we went ot the gorcery store and ate lunch while waiting for the room to be ready.  It was raining so we didn't want to go to a Park until our room was available.  Once our room was ready, we made the long trek from the parking lot to the room through the rain with all of our luggage on a big, unwieldy cart.  Once I returned the cart, we all unpacked and decided that we would venture to Epcot in the rain.

Before leaving we all signed our all purpose Disney room keys/Park passes/Dining cards.  Juliana did a really good job writting in such a small space.  The day she stops making her "J" backwards will be sad for me.

It was miserable at Epcot - puddles everywhere, raining the whole time.  Juliana stayed dry under her poncho with the exception of her feet and the bottoms of her pants.  We went on the Nemo ride and then looked at the fish for a while.  Then we went to the character area and saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald.  I didn't take my camera that night since it was raining so hard - I will have to wait for the Photopass CD for those pictures.  We rode Test Track which wasn't operating correctly so it wasn't much fun.  We decided to call it a night.  We took turns carrying the poncho clad Juliana to the bus stop, went back to the hotel room for dry clothes and then got dinner from the hotel food court.  We had a very early morning so an early night was a good idea.