An early Christmas present for Benji.

Since we love Benji sooooo much, we decided to let him open one present early this year:

Presenting.

As Kim would rightly tell you, I am not one to shop for presents in advance. (As Kim would also rightly tell you, she is.) I'm not one for shopping on December 24th, mind, and I generally have a couple gifts purchased before waving bye-bye¹ to November, but it's fair to say that most years, 80 percent or more of my Christmas shopping is done within three weeks of the holiday.

But not this year. Kim's parents drove down to Richmond for Thanksgiving², so Kim and I made a valiant effort this month to get as much present shopping done N-O-W so her mom and dad could drive the presents to the Midwest for us. How successful were we?

* Kim's dad? Done.
* Kim's mom? Done, except for something that will be directly shipped from online.
* Kim's brother? Done.
* moM? Done.
* daD? Done.
* Ava? Done, unless this totally awesome thing gets cheaper on eBay.³
* Beth? Fifty percent done.
* Josh? Zero percent done.

So Beth-Annie and Ed need to give some present ideas that can be purchased online. Thank you.

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In other, unrelated news, the church at which I'm a paid section leader⁴ has informed me that they will not have any paid section leaders as of this January. The choir is trying an end-around, so there's a chance I might maintain the position, but for a few reasons I'm not optimistic. In the scheme of things, it's not a huge amount of money -- it's in the low single-digit percentages of Kim's and my total income -- but I liked the choir, and I liked being able to contribute at least a little to our family's coffers. Maybe that perfect handbell-director position will magically appear in the classifieds next week...

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1 Which also happens to be benji's latest trick.

2 And -- although not related to this topic -- Kim's brother flew down for Thanksgiving as well.

3 Ava couldn't use it until she's threeish, though, so no huge hurry.

4 A church that, no coincidentally, is running about a 15 percent deficit for the year.

Sometimes Benji tries out new things.

Like this.

Disney-Pixar Studios?

Walt Disney World has four big parks that make up the resort and on day 6 we visited park #4, Disney-MGM Studios (it's rumored that it will be renamed Disney-Pixar studios with the recent acquisition). The park is focused around celebrating TV and movies and supposedly giving behind-the-scenes looks at movies. Honestly, I think we all know so much about the magic of the movies that the rides weren't all that interesting, but it was still an enjoyable day. In fact, on one of the rides the people behind us told us they had more fun watching Benjamin than watching the behind-the-scenes stuff. We also saw several stage shows, such as Beauty and the Beast and Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and I enjoyed those. And one of the best thrill rides in the four parks is at the Studios. Matthew didn't go on the Tower of Terror, but I think he missed out on a good thrill.

Although no rides at this park specifically aimed at Benjamin's demographic, they were having a special event with performances from preschool music groups. Earlier in the month the Wiggles were there, but we saw some group I had never heard of (Imagination Movers, maybe?). Given the hype of the Wiggles and other preschool music groups, I had expected Benji to get all excited at the concert. He was completely unimpressed. I was also completely unimpressed, so I don't know if
Benji was too young or too smart to enjoy this concert.

Later that evening we had dinner at Mamma Melrose's, which we learned was originally supposed to be Muppet Movie themed but the deal fell through at the last minute. We were so spoiled by the excellent food and atmosphere at Epcot that personally I felt disappointed in what otherwise would have been a good meal. With such high expectations, I don't know what we'll do on our next trip to Disney World when we have to pay for meals and go back to eating fast food the whole trip.


Waiting for the parade to start.


Benji loves parades!


Who's the bigger celebrity, Benji or Lightning McQueen?


Benji says, "I'm done posing now. Time to move on."

Are you wearing a counterfeit zipper?

Look at your zipper. If it says YKK -- and mine does -- it may not be legit.

Back to the Disney Tripologue

I know I've taken quite a hiatus from the tripologue to focus on Benji's birthday, Halloween, and other recent accomplishments and activities. But I feel the need to complete what I set out to do and share more of our great trip. And I certainly don't want to tell Benji great details about the first 4 days of his trip to Disney World and remember nothing about the rest of the trip. So this is as much for me as it is for my readers.

So, we pick up again with the fifth day of our trip. I've already written about the biggest part of that day — the haircut. As with many days of this trip, we spent the afternoon in Fantasyland riding Benji rides. This day we had a rite of passage — Benjamin's first ride on Dumbo. Dumbo isn't really an interesting ride (it's just Dumbo cars flying in a circle) but it's notorious for being one of the longest lines in the park and one of the must-dos for little kids. Of course Benji wasn't begging to ride Dumbo yet, but the line was extremely short for Dumbo so Mommy took him on while Daddy manned the camera. (It turns out that riding that day was a good idea since we never saw a line that short the rest of our trip.) Although it wasn't as fun as the Peoplemover, Benji did seem to enjoy himself. I think he particularly likes rides where he can feel the wind in his hair. He also seems to like watching how the rides work. Both at Busch Gardens and here, he spent the majority of the ride watching the spokes that hold the car to the center of the ride, which makes it a bit hard to get him to face Daddy for a good photo.

Another highlight from this day was meeting the giant character Stitch from "Lilo and Stitch." Although Mommy would have loved for him to choose a more classic character for his favorite, it seems that the fuzzy blue Stitch has a strong appeal. He loved touching Stitch's nose like he loved the noses at Pooh's breakfast. And throughout the trip we would "try out" different stuffed animals with Benji at the stores. He consistently liked different Stitch dolls, so with a big sigh Mommy gave in and we got him the weird blue alien. He still loves his Stitch doll at home and crawls up to it to give Stitch big hugs.

Later in the day we took a long ride on the monorail, stopping at the Grand Floridian hotel to check it out. Although it was gorgeous and much closer to the parks than our hotel, we decided it wasn't worth 3 or 4 times as much money per night. It was kind of relaxing to loop around on the monorail a few times. There are great views of the parks, especially Epcot, and it's air conditioned.

We finished our day with dinner at — where else? — Epcot, at the Rose & Crown Pub. Epcot's evening fireworks show is centered around the World Showcase Lagoon and there's only one restaurant on the lagoon. Admittedly the food at the pub was not the best at Epcot (although still good), but the big draw was a great guaranteed viewing area for the fireworks. Benji didn't like the fireworks as much as the Electrical Parade, but it was a nice way to end the day, especially since we had our desserts waiting for us (including a Bailey's trifle) at our table when the show was done.


Everyone needs a family photo with an alien.


Benji's new favorite character, Stitch.


Do I have to get in the stroller, Mommy?


The shortest line I've ever seen for Dumbo.


Riding Dumbo -- a rite of passage.


Monorails are fun rides, too.


Is the Segway Matthew's favorite ride?


Benji loved flirting with the waitress through this entire meal.


I'll pay for this meal, Mommy.

One important note, followed by three much less important notes.

Benji has two arms again. Yay Benji.

For those of you reading this in Texas (which is, um, probably no one), the Austin Handbell Ensemble will be performing my "The World in Solemn Stillness Lay" for their Christmas concerts on Friday, December 15th and Sunday, December 17th. Yay me.

I am currently on a sleep schedule of about 1:30a to 9:00a. I do not like this. Boo me.

I am unnervingly excited -- and more than a bit worried -- about the next episode of "The Office." Yay Pam and Jim.

Stair Master

Although Benjamin hasn't yet decided to start walking, he's quite the avid climber. He goes up and down the stairs anywhere from 2 or 3 times a day to over 20 times a day. On the way up, he climbs a few stairs and then looks behind him to make sure you're following him. When he comes down, he crawls to the edge, turns around, and comes down feet first on his belly. He just learned how to crawl down at his birthday, but already he acts like an expert. And now that he's an expert we've snapped a video and a few photos while watching him.

Up we go!


Hi Mommy!


Wait, I didn't really want to be upstairs. Let's go back down.


Got to turn around first.

Trick or Treat

Although this was not Benjamin's first Halloween, it was his first costume and first trick-or-treating. This was clearly more an event for Mommy and the photo album. He was a pretty good sport about being dressed up as Dumbo, but he got less and less happy as we went to more houses. After we got home, his mood definitely perked up as he dug through his booty. It's funny how he treated his bucket of candy just like his bucket of Legos -- take them out of the bucket and put them back in, out and in, out and in. Won't he be disappointed when Mommy is done eating all his candy?