I’m probably a little late in the game to tell you all about our holiday adventures, but it’s my blog, so I’m doing it anyway. :)

Our holiday season kicked off with our first trip to Hogsmeade. (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, for the rest of you Muggles!)  I was beyond impressed.

There’s this moment when you walk through the entrance where your heart stops and for a second, you honestly think you’re there. Or, maybe that’s just me. :)

Many of our friends insisted we’d love the Forbidden Journey ride. Well, we went, and all I had to say afterwards was, “Do our friends know me? Have we met?” Because, seriously, Jenseys should never be allowed on such things. I pretty much thought I was going to die and was left feeling terrified and wanting to crawl into a hole and cry! (Nate loved it, but couldn’t shake the “fact” that some of the visuals were poorly focused.) I will give it another go at some point because it was an incredible attraction, but it’s gonna be a while. :) Flight of the Hippograph was much more my speed, sadly enough! I could have ridden it all day – It reminded me of Goofy’s Barnstormer. :)

We checked out Hog’s Head and tried our first Butterbeer, which we loved – For those of you that haven’t been yet, try the frozen kind, too! We didn’t think to and kinda regret it.

Nerds. :)

My favorite thing about Hogsmeade were all of the shops; I often feel like Disney World could be so much cooler if every building facade had an actual shop you could walk into, or at least doors that would open! (For example, I always hate the Streets of America at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and all the wasted space they have with the buildings there.) Anyway, Universal did a great job with this in Hogsmeade. We even almost missed a shop or two, not realizing the doors went to ‘real’ places. :)

Mythos, I love you!

Somehow we missed peeking into this restaurant on our last visit:

We made a quick trip to visit Nate’s wonderful family in South Florida –

Giving the little ladies their Christmas gifts early – I don’t think Gaby was thrilled at the fact that we gave her an American Girls’ Guide to Manners book as one of her gifts. I guess not all girls are into that kinda thing like I was when I was 11 – Whoops!

After almost 8 years of completely avoiding calling Nate’s dad by name (much harder than one would think!), I’ve finally settled on Dad. It just feels right. :)

I think someone shops for trees at the same place! The tree on the left is in Epcot, the one on the right was taken during our visit to Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It was our first time going there, and when we walked in, I thought meh? Pretty much just like Orlando’s Gaylord Palms… Then I realized we were only in one of the 6 wings. Crazy!

Our first Nashville guests came to stay for a bit – Surely you all remember Jessie & Nick!

Jessie is Huck’s BFF. Not that you can tell or anything… ;)

Sadly enough, I don’t have any photos of the most exciting / terrifying part of our whole entire year – The drive we took from Nashville to Gatlinburg. What should have taken 3.5 hours took close to 9. We drove our PT Cruiser on the iciest roads I’ve ever driven on… After however many hours of hydroplaning and honestly thinking we just weren’t gonna make it, we somehow did. I’ve never been so happy to reach a destination as I was when we finally pulled up to our cabin. It made the view that much more impressive after being so close to death!

The next day, we went s l e d d i n g!  A first for both of us. :) Yes, that’s Nate sledding with a Flip Camera in his hat. ;)

Part Two is up next! :)