ICE!, New Year’s & the ER…

The hotel atrium at the Gaylord Palms was so neat. One side was designed to look like Key West and even had a big boat where tables and chairs were set up for seating for one of the restaurants. On the other end, which is the part of the hotel where our room was, was called St. Augustine. On that side of the atrium a huge stone fort was replicated.

The brick pavers that lead from one of the atrium to the other were peppered with bricks that had all of Florida’s counties engraved in them. We found our favorite… It was such a fun place to stay.

Me & AB on our balcony

On Thursday morning, we got our tickets to see ICE!. This year’s theme was “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

We kept seeing signs about how cold it was inside the exhibit, but I didn’t really think it would be. I made sure we all had our coats and gloves, and thought for sure that would keep us from wearing the worn-by-strangers, germ-infested parkas that they provide. Nope. We got the parkas. I just love how slimming they are. Nothing like looking like a giant blue marshmallow. AB was thrilled to be wearing someone else’s jacket, too, let me tell you. She is her mother’s child.I told myself it was cold enough inside that no germs would be able to survive…it sounded good anyway.

Daddy & AB waiting to go in!

It really was SO cold inside! But the parkas did keep us warm. You could feel the sting of the cold on your face though, and on your legs where the parka didn’t cover. Since my parka was a man’s size 4XL, mine pretty much dragged the ground, so I was warm.

It was so neat once we got inside! EVERYTHING was carved from ice, just like they said! That’s talent.

There were signs everywhere to “Respect the Ice: no touching or licking!” I couldn’t help myself, ya’ll. I HAD to feel it to believe that it really was all ice. Rebel that I am, I snuck a few tiny feels of the ice, and I’m happy to report it WAS REALLY ice! They weren’t lying! :) I didn’t feel the need to lick it though. Hello, I’ve seen the movie Dumb & Dumber.

The last “room” in the story was the living room where the staircases and ice slides were, which again, were all made of ICE! So neat! I would have tried it myself, if the line hadn’t been so long. AB was too little to do the kiddie slide by herself, so maybe next time. But it was fun to watch other people slide down. Now yall know that looks fun. All of the children loved it!

We thought that was the last room, but as we exited, we went through one more ice display, and it was a life-size nativity. Even the faces were carved out. It was so beautiful and I loved that they included the scene of Jesus’ birth into the exhibit.

It was such a fun little trip to Orlando and a great way to spend some of DW’s vacation time! :)

There wasn’t much of his week off left after our trip. Friday was New Year’s Eve, and we rang in the New Year at our house with my parents, some of momma’s awesome chicken wings, chocolate fondue, and some coyote hunting. What can I say, we get wild and crazy.

New Year’s Day DW woke up feeling terrible. What a way to start the year. We had lunch at my in-law’s and he didn’t even want to eat. Little did I know, I wasn’t far behind him. On Sunday morning, I woke up with the eppizooty on top of having a gall bladder attack. Good, good times, that landed us in the ER on Sunday afternoon/evening for over FOUR hours. It was so gross and I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about having sat in that germy place for so long. You’ve not seen anything until you see some sights in the ER.

They said I was dehydrated and gave me an IV and since it was so crowded that day, I had to sit in the waiting room with everyone else WITH the IV in. I don’t know why this bothered me so much, but I felt so gross…and so embarrassed. I know it’s hard to believe that someone who writes about their life on the world wide web really is a pretty private person, but I am, especially when IV’s are involved. Sorry, but if you’re going to administer fluids into me intravenously, then I just feel like I should be in a more sterile environment than sitting in a waiting room full of sickies and across from a woman who keeps coughing and spitting in a cup. I’m a weirdo, I’ll claim it. The drs did a scan on the ole gall bladder and since it was just irritated, not infected and there were no stones, there was nothing they could do. The plus side is, I didn’t have to have it removed. No surgery is good news in my book. The bad news is, it’s probably going to continue to have flair ups like I’ve been having for years…so we’ll just keep popping the Tums and making do. :)

We’re all better now and are actually kind of thankful for our stomach bug. We couldn’t eat for two days, which means our appetites and stomachs shrank, which was perfect timing for the big cutting back in the food department that the New Year always prompts.

Not sure where the bug came from, but my money’s on those dang blue parkas!

~amw~