The Land, Sea and Wedding Trip - October 2015 Pre-Trip *Updated 26th Sept - 2 Weeks To Go Update*

[JakesArmy]

Your trip sounds amazing! I'm getting so jealous reading everyone's pre-trip reports! 😉

[Lisa29]

Originally Posted by sheluk

Yay so glad you are doing another report! All of yours plans sound great - can't wait for more xx

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Thank you! x

Originally Posted by DiddyDan

I haven't been on the Dibb in what feels like ages (probably only a week or so!), so glad when I came on you'd done an update!

I literally can't wait until the girls know! x

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I am still finding it weird talking about it in front of them! xx

Originally Posted by juliab

Great updates Lisa, I think the Memory Maker is good value and even more so for you as you can share with other family members.

I had the exact same folder for all our documents xx

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I have done the old Photopass every time since I first read about it in 2007 and have loved getting pictures of all of us. It is even better when the cost is split!

xx

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

All caught up, fantastic that you sorted flights and seats at a good price. Well done on being organised for Christmas and can't wait for the reveal !

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I am still really happy with the price we paid.

Christmas and the reveal were great, will get an update within the next week hopefully.

Originally Posted by TheBeast

I'm very impressed at how organised you are Lisa, both with the holiday and Xmas. I've still got to find presents for Nicola and my mum!

Great news that the flights are booked and you're all linked up on MDE.

Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas!

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I don't know how I managed to be so organised.

I'm really glad the flights are booked and linking on MDE is one of those silly, exciting things!

Christmas was great fun as usual.

[Lisa29]

Originally Posted by JakesArmy

Your trip sounds amazing! I'm getting so jealous reading everyone's pre-trip reports! 😉

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Thank you! I know, it's horrible sometimes when you don't have a countdown reading what everyone else will be up to.

[Antigua08]

Wow you've done so much such since I last looked on here, very organised!

Haven't been on for a little while but as been getting a little stressed with trying to get plans for our trip sorted but thankfully all coming together now.

Plans all sound fab

[Lisa29]

Originally Posted by Antigua08

Wow you've done so much such since I last looked on here, very organised!

Haven't been on for a little while but as been getting a little stressed with trying to get plans for our trip sorted but thankfully all coming together now.

Plans all sound fab

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Thanks, I want to get as much done as I can. If the exchange rate was better, I would get money changed too!

It can get very stressful trying to plan everything, especially as there is now so much to plan in advance.

[Lisa29]

Christmas and The Reveal

Happy New Year all! WE GO THIS YEAR for those reading with 2015 trips planned, eek!

The reveal of the holiday to Madison and Kaley went really well!

It was late on Christmas Eve when we made the final decision of how the morning was going to go as we weren't the only ones who wanted to see their reaction.

The plan was to have the girls up around 7am (the earliest wake up time allowed on Christmas Day!), open their stocking presents upstairs while Phil sorted all the cameras in the living room, then downstairs for presents. Mum and Dad were going to Ryan and Bethany's for 7.30am to see Piper open her presents then they were all going to come to ours around about 8.30am, with Dan and Dave.

So, Christmas Eve night/Christmas Day early hours and I was awake almost ALL NIGHT! I think I was just so excited and I got barely an hours sleep!

About 6.10am, I saw the light from Madison's iPod go on and even though I desperately wanted them to get up(!), I called in to say that it was too early and to try and go back to sleep. She lasted about half an hour then put the iPod on again. I called in again to tell her it was still too early and to wait. Not long after and Kaley comes rushing into our room for a cuddle as she does every morning and we told Madison to check if they had stockings and to come in.





They had fun opening these presents (just a few, cheap little things for fun) then when Phil had everything in place, we followed the Mickey head sprinkles that started at their beds and went down the stairs to their presents and front door.



They dove straight into their shared presents (blu rays, reading books, etc.) and then, as I had wrapped these earlier than I normally would and wasn't able to strategically place certain presents, the first present Madison opened was the only thing she had asked for, the Elsa crown! She was so pleased with this and wore it all day.



Kaley was a lot slower opening her presents and was really excited after opening each one



Each present got a kiss and cuddle after she opened it!









A couple of times, I had to tell Madison to stop opening presents as she was going so much faster than Kaley was! Next year, I will be wrapping every present of hers separately, rather than the 3 pairs of socks in one present, they will all be wrapped on their own.



Their last present each were the Anna Coronation dress for Madison and the Elsa dress for Kaley. They wore these for the day last week



Kaley wanted her Jake and the Neverland pirate ship opening straight away and sat playing with this quite happily between having breakfast and the others arriving.

They had croissants for breakfast and then finally at 8.54am, Mum sent a whattsapp to say they were on their way, yay!

After over 6 months of secrecy, it was time for the REVEAL!

Continued in next post

[Lisa29]

Continued from previous post

Kettle on, drinks made, cameras set back up and we were ready for the girls to get their last present, eek.

I had gone upstairs and put the box in their room



And sent Madison and Kaley upstairs with something that "needed taking upstairs" . Phil was videoing this part and Madison kept asking why they had another present in their room!

Phil brought it down and they opened it and took out the first present which had a big 'OPEN ME FIRST' sticker on. It was a DVD that said play me and we made them sit on the settee and put the DVD on.

For some reason, we recorded them from two angles rather than one of us taking photos , so we only have video footage.

Here is the video that Phil has edited to show what they were watching

.

(The words that they read were interspersed with photos and movie footage.)

He had done a kind of picture in picture to show what they were watching but it wouldn't upload to youtube properly so had to make some changes.

After the excitement and they had calmed down a bit, they then opened the rest of the presents in the box, which were all holiday related in some way.**







I was so happy they enjoyed the reveal and were really excited. Madison was and still is most excited about the cruise! It hasn't seemed to sink in that we have 15 days of Disney before the cruise!

**The following photos are what was in the box but we took them after everyone had gone as we had still been recording





















This book is something Mum picked up in November for Madison so that she can write all about her trips



They also had a small notebook/sketchbook each that we are going to make into autograph books.

And that was our Christmas Day reveal! We had lots of fun and had a lovely day at Mum and Dad's, with Dan and Dave too











Followed by a second Christmas Day, again at Mum and Dad's, on Boxing Day with all of us there, along with my Nana, where the kids had even more presents, and after 12 weeks, we finally got a picture of the 6 kids together



Thanks for reading!

[Guest]

Absolutely brilliant! So pleased the reveal went so well. Madison's reaction honestly brought a tear to my eye. Just brilliant.

[Redrach1903]

Love this Lisa! You fly out the day before us! Hopefully see you going about

Love the reveal - it was lovely

xx

[juliab]

How lovely, glad it all went so well for you, bet the girls are so excited

What a wonderful Christmas you had xx