This year for Christmas we went bowling! With a 6-6 record, we were eligible to play in a bowl game this year and the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, Florida invited us to come down and play Rutgers on December 28th.
Just like most bowl games, the team and many of the support staff head down to the bowl the week before to get prepared for the game and this year was no different. We were so excited and thankful to get the opportunity to be invited to fly down with the team on the 23rd.
December 23rd
The festivities started as soon as we got there. Once we landed in Orlando, we got our luggage to our rooms, had a team lunch and got back on the buses to go to Universal Studios for the rest of the day.
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| Me, Sam, Jed, Tyler, Tom, Rachel, Sophie, Nolan & Brian |
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| Sophie, Brian, Rachel, Nolan, Tyler, Jed |
As we were having dinner that night with Jed's office, one of his students, Sophie, asked everyone, "What was your favorite part of the day?". I loved this and think I will highlight each day at the bowl with "what my favorite part of the day was.
So for day one, my favorite part of that day was the Butterbeer at the Harry Potter area of Universal.
December 24th
Today was a pretty uneventful day, it was spent just hanging out in the room, driving Jimmy to the airport and reading by the pool. The evening on the other hand was a lot of fun. It started with a Christmas Eve service lead by the football chaplain, Johnny Shelton. It was so amazing! After the service, we went Disney hotel hopping with 4 of the students that work in Jed's office. Jimmy gave us a great idea to check out how all the different hotels (Disney's Contemporary Resort, Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Grand Floridian Resort, and the Polynesian Resort) were decorated and it was the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve.
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| Disney's Contemporary Resort |
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| Disney's Contemporary Resort |
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| Disney's Polynesian Resort |
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| Disney's Polynesian Resort |
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| Disney's Polynesian Resort |
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| The Grand Floridian Resort |
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| The Grand Floridian Resort |
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| Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge |
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| Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge |
December 25th
Today started out with Christmas morning in our hotel room. Tom, Brian, the 7 video students and Jed & I spent the morning trading Secret Santa gifts and White Elephant gifts. It was such a fun way to spend Christmas morning in a hotel room.
The video team headed off to practice after breakfast and I head to Magic Kingdom. HELPFUL HINT: Never go to Magic Kingdom on Christmas day. UGH. I spent 4 hours waiting at Epcot to get on the Monorail to get to Magic Kingdom which they had closed due to being "full".
But at 4 o'clock, I was able to get into Magic Kingdom, just when the football team and Jed and company got there as well. We spent the evening riding rides, walking around the park and acting like kids. It was so much fun.
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| Sam, Sophie, Rachel, Jed, Brian & John |
My favorite part of today: Christmas morning with the video family
December 26th
Today was the day I set aside to shop! I was really excited about today and the outlets that were just 5 miles away. The town offers a trolley that goes up and down the main road and at the end of the trolley was the outlets. So around noon, I set off for the outlets. I hung out on the trolley reading my ipad for almost an hour and a half before I decided to just walk the last mile and a half to the outlets. The outlets were CRAZY! And I was determined to make the most of my time there as it took so long to get there. There were people everywhere with large suitcaseS ready to fill with deals they had found. After a few hours, I headed back on the trolley. It took only an hour to get back which was night. That night, we went with Tom and Brian to Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse. It was so much fun to watch the 3 guys go gaga over all the different meals on sticks that were brought to the table. After dinner, Jed & I met up with 5 of the video students and we went to go see the late showing of Les Miserables. What a fantastic movie!
My favorite part of today: Les Miserables
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December 27th
SEA WORLD! Jed had the day off for the most part today so we got tickets to Sea World just the two of us. We walked to the park and got in at 9:30am and stayed all day long. We checked out all the roller coasters and shows we could get in. At time we even ran through the park from one show to the other. It was just the best time of the two of us being silly and having a fun time.
We finally left the park around 7:30 and met up with Tom to go to a favorite restaurant that we didn't even know what in Orlando, Giordano's. We absolutely love this deep dish Chicago pizza and were so excited to share the experience with Tom.
My favorite part of today: Manta rollercoaster with Jed.
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December 28th
Game Day!
This is why we came to Orlando, today was the big day. In the morning, a group of us went to the stadium to set up pom poms for all the Hokie fans.
And after packing up the meeting rooms, Jed and I did a little speed walking to Pointe Orlando and got a pre-game lunch from Adobe Gila's. It was fun to hang out a little with him before we headed off to the game. Tom was in Florida to visit his mom for the holiday's so he drove down to go to the game with me. It was fun to have a friend to go to the game with.
It was a hard fought game and in typical Hokie fashion, our boys were able to pull out a win in overtime. I couldn't be more proud of my team and the coaches for a very hard fought game and season. Congratulations Hokies!
After the game, we went back to the hotel and celebrated the victory in the hospitality suite with friends.
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| Anna, Jed & Brian |
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| John & I |
My favorite part of today: When the Hokies brought out the flag tying the fallen Sandy Hook students & teachers with our fallen Hokies. Something I will never forget. All 58 will always be remembered.
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