Saturday, January 10, 2009

Mid-January first post of 2009

2009 is apparently my year of blog slacking. Since my previous entry, the kids and Gene have gone back to school and work. I've worked every Sunday through Thursday, but nothing particularly interesting or exciting has happened. I've spent most of my spare time researching Disney World and other Orlando-area locations. Ooh, I did find out that my brother Andy is going to be able to take off work to come to Disney! That means my entire family will be there! We (the 4 of us) are leaving two weeks from YESTERDAY!!! Wooohoooooooooooo!

Yesterday I spent five very long hours shopping for Tinker Bell gifts and other junk we need for our trip. I spent most of my time at Dollar Tree, the Dollar Spot at Target and the toy clearance aisles at Target, Wal-Mart and Kmart, but also went to (gasp) the mall. (Oh, I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but while we're at Disney, Tink leaves a small gift tooth fairy style if the kids were good the day before. It's a cheap trick that works wonders for behavior AND cuts down on the gimmes at the bajillion gift shops.) I scored all kinds of Disney-themed small toys, stickers, notepads, markers, etc. for a buck apiece. I then scored a couple of "major" toys for Kaylin on super-clearance at JC Penney!

Kaylin's favorite character is Tink (duh, because she brings presents!) and she has an online subscription to something (I think) called Pixie Hollow. The idea seems similar to Webkinz in that you play games to earn money to outfit your Pixie world. The characters are Tinker Bell and all of her pixie friends. There are some insanely expensive (as well as cheap-looking and ugly) toys that go along with this game. I refused to buy any of them for Christmas because they looked like expensive junk. Anyway, at JC Penney, I found the hideous jewelry box starter set for $12, marked down from $89.99! Score! I'm not exactly sure what it does, but I do know it plugs directly into your computer and scans the hideous charms you can add on to your gumball machine-looking necklace that comes with the starter set. I also scored a handheld game that can be played "anytime," plugged into your computer and the points earned are converted to pixie dollars and added to your online fund. Again, this game looks crappy, with horrible graphics. I paid $6. It was originally marked $49.99. Yes.

I didn't find anything similarly impressive for Logan. I'm going to keep looking for a handheld game for him because that would be the one Tink gift that could cause major jealousy- if Kaylin gets a video game and Logan gets a sheet of Toy Story stickers that's NOT gonna fly! He won't care two hoots about the jewelry box... Logan has been much harder to shop for because he doesn't like all of the abundant Disney-themed stationary and lip gloss. I wish we still had our Disney Store at the mall. Oh well, worst case scenario, I'll buy him a couple things at the resort gift shop. (And is that scenario even bad in any way???)

I've been really excited about the thought of driving this trip. It seemed like such a fun and exciting idea, to be able to show the kids the mountains and to stop at interesting places along the way. Now that the trip is approaching and reality is setting in, I am realizing that I'm a complete idiot. HOW will it be FUN to drive 18+ hours with the kids??? How??? Gene's already moaning and groaning about the MESS they're going to make in his beloved van. (I suppose it doesn't help that I keep finding the messiest-looking candy and snacks and asking him if we should buy it for the trip. Hee hee, teasing Gene is fun.)

Well, I better log off and get busy writing my letters to the kids' teachers. I don't think anyone at school will be impressed that we're taking two weeks off. Oh well.

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