Happy Wednesday Everyone! Well, it’s Thanksgiving Eve, and I hope you’re all ready for a great holiday with good food and even better company. I know I am. My parents are in town to celebrate with us, so it’s going to be a great holiday. But before we get to that, lets catch up on the super busy week we’ve had here in central Florida!
Do you ever go through spells in life where you are so busy, that you can’t keep track of what day it is or what you’re supposed to be doing? Well, that’s me lately. It’s been so busy around here, between the meet up, covering events for the site, having guests in town, plus the usual day to day activities…. I can’t keep up. I’m going to do my best to break things down, without turning this weeks blog into a War and Peace sized novel! Last Thursday evening, we were invited to the media preview of Christmas at Gaylord Palms. We’ve gone to this the past three years, and really enjoyed it. You get to see a Cirque show, some beautiful decorations, see Santa if you want, and my favorite part…. the ICE exhibit featuring a Charlie Brown Christmas. As you walk through this 9 degree temperature display, you can see huge ice sculptures in the shape of your favorite Peanuts characters, and it’s pretty impressive. It sure is cold in there though. Yes, we’re from Michigan, so we should be used to those types of temperatures, but I guess we’ve lost our street cred so to speak, because we were painfully cold walking through there. The boys actually asked if they could walk ahead of us to get out faster. Lightweights. I highly recommend going, just bring some gloves with you. And maybe a hat!
The next day was Mickey Mouse’s Birthday! We knew we had to run over to the Magic Kingdom to get a Mickey Birthday button, plus see what else was going on for his special day. The park was crowded, but the weather was nice. Disney was offering buttons when you walked into the park, had special cupcakes for purchase, and did a little something extra in the Move It Shake It parade for Mickey Mouse. That was about it. No special merchandise or anything. There was also another birthday to celebrate, our magazine photographer Joe was in town for his birthday! I was glad we got to see him and his wife. After taking pics and video at the MK, we went over to the Contemporary Resort with Autumn (who was still in town) to check in to the DestinationD event that was taking place over the weekend. We got a look at the new MagicBand tech that’s coming in 2017, so that was pretty interesting. It was such a busy day, but after finishing up at the Contemporary, we went to Hollywood Studios to get pics of the new Pizzerizzo that had just opened that day. I can’t even begin to tell you how tired we were at the end of the night. I love my job, I truly do, but it’s been a lot of long days lately. Work trips are different than going to the parks for fun, it’s a bit more stressful, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The busy times rolled on….. another park, another birthday. On Saturday, we rounded up the family and went over to Animal Kingdom to meet up with people for my friend Janel’s birthday celebration. I was tired, but I was glad we went, it ended up being a really fun day. On Sunday, we took our friend Fran, who was still in town from the meet up, over to Disney Springs for lunch and cupcakes. The weather was starting to get chilly on Sunday too. When we walked around the Springs, and the sun started going down, I was actually cold. It’s funny how the temperature here feels so much colder at 60 degrees, rather than 60 degrees in Michigan. Restaurants and such pull out their big propane heaters to help keep guests warm, it’s interesting to see!
Monday we went to have lunch with Autumn before she headed home, then had to run to the store and such because we had to prepare for my parents to come to town for Thanksgiving. Usually I somewhat dread certain holidays, when I know we’ll be alone down here, but my parents decided to come in for a few days, and we were looking forward to it. We picked up my mom and dad from the airport yesterday in the morning, did some running around, and then went to Disney Springs for a little while at night. It’s great to have family here truly. I plan to enjoy the few days that we have family here, as I know it will go by fast.
So, Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I truly have a lot to be thankful for. The past couple of weeks, we’ve had some amazing people in town, and it was much needed. Sometimes when life has many ups and downs, it’s a good reminder when you get to spend time with people you care about, to know who’s there for you through thick and thin. This year has been one of the hardest we’ve had in a long time, but at the end of the day, I’m grateful for the blessings we have, and mostly for the people we have in our lives. To you, our readers, we are also thankful to all of you. Running TMSM isn’t always easy, but it’s you, our Disney Ohana, who keep us going each and every day, and it’s appreciated. So, with that…… from our home to yours, wishing you all a blessed, magical and Happy Thanksgiving. Until next week, see ya real soon! ~M
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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