Jim McIntosh

Merry McChristmas

This year the McIntosh asked for a trip to Disney for our Christmas present. In early December we took off from school and work and headed back to Orlando for our second visit to the DW. We stayed in a new location this time, the Polynesian Resort, which turned out to be very nice. We played in the pool and visited the parks – basically had a good time al around. We also found out that one of Ellie’s friends from school was going down to Disney at about the same time and we coordinated our trip so that we had some time with friends while we were there.

Highlights of the trip were pool-side games at the hotel, seeing snow on Main St. at Hollywood Studios, Ellie overcoming her fears and riding Thunder Mountain Railroad, Mia getting pictures with Micky and Miny, fun with the Damson’s at the German Beer Gardin and staying up late to go to our first real luau party.

Have a Merry McChristmas and a Happy McNew Year from the McIntosh’s.

Ellie and Mia Eating Smores

For the past couple years we’ve brought the fire pit up from the walkout to the driveway in the fall. It is a lot of fun to see there with a fire, watch football, enjoy a beer or two, and sometimes make smores. We did just this yesterday afternoon. I know it must look super classy to my neighbors but I don’t care. :-) The girls and I love it.  The only thing that makes this time better is watching a football team that is good (Neither the Boilers or the Colts are good this year).

Mia & Ellie

The last 5 months Mia and Ellie have been taking Karate at school with a group called Crouching Tigers. They both have had a great time and they’ve been learning something new together.

The last session of the year all the kids in class were to demonstrate their new skill by breaking a board. Ellie, being a big strong girl, broke the board with no problem. Mia wasn’t able to do it in the class with all the parents and kids watching, but last week we had the board at home and she gave it another shot – and snap!

It just goes to show, like many things down syndrom, that just because she had down syndrom it doesn’t mean she can learn to do something with practice. It just take her a little longer, that’s all.

At the beginning of February, as Indian was about to be blanketed by a foot of ice, Kelly, Mia, Ellie and I boarded a plane and were off to Florida. This was our first official family vacation and I don’t think we could have chosen a better place to go. We had great weather, stayed at a great hotel, and had a blast at the parks. We even got to catch up with Todd and Krista the last day at the Magic Kingdom. My wife did a great job of scheduling everything.