~ Disney Does it AGAIN! ~ Matty and the Gingerbread Men! ~ 12/30 I cheated! A link!

[maroo]

How many of you guys remember Lucas? The Make a Wish child that was able to "meet" the Steam Train (Lilly Belle) and be the Family of the Day at the MK?

If you missed that magical morning... check it out HERE!

If you remember Lucas (or have checked that out above)... Well... It happened AGAIN!

Another Make a Wish child made a very specific wish - and Disney helped grant it!

You will want to meet Matty and his family -

Here's Matty!

(Have you EVER seen a cuter Gingerbread Man?)


Matty's Mommy, Pamela has done a great job introducing her family in their Make a Wish Pre-Trip Report...

Matty's Make a Wish Pre-Trip Report!


This is a total teaser...as I am not quite ready to start yet... But SOON, I promise! I don't want you to miss it!!

I just wanted to make sure you guys were all able to subscribe to this little trip report! It will only cover a few hours in the life of this little boy - but I promise it will be worth your while to stick with us!

The pictures are uploaded...The story is basically ready to be told...

His Mom has given me permission to tell you guys about his SWEET evening!

So...subscribe. Tell your friends. Post Matty some notes here!

Trip Report Links:
A Little Background Info
Is it going to RAIN?!?!
The Parade Begins!
A special Christmas Eve Update - The Gingerbread Men and Santa!
Merry Christmas! Matty's Private Meet and Greet with the Gingerbread Men!
Can there be MORE Magic??

 

[All7OfUs]

I'm ready, I'm ready!!!!

 

[that's nice]

I'll be eagerly waiting to hear this story!!!!

Let me get my popcorn ready while I wait!

 

[adsrtw]

Me too! I'm ready!

 

[yinyanggirls]

Oh, Maroo, you're evil!!!! You can't do this to us! No more teasers!!!!!

 

[TarzansKat]

I'm here, and I can't wait. What a cute little gingerbread man.

 

[pacrosby]

Hey......I know that little sweetie......he's MY baby!!!!!!!

I like your title. I've already decided to entitle my TR "Mom, Dad, 3 kids and a gingerbread man!!" (I know, I know....I'm my biggest fan). I look forward to reading all about all that magic from your perspective.

As an aside, I got the sweetest pm from a woman who's daughter knows one of those Gingerbread Men and had heard all about the evening (both before and after it occured). Wild huh?

ok, I'm on the edge of my seat. Get crackin' there girl!!

Pam (and Matty)

 

[pipersmom]

I'm here!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[jessica52877]

I agree with Matty's mom! Get crackin'! No more waiting! This is your Christmas gift to us! I cannot wait to here about Matty as the gingerbread men are one of my favorite things in the Christmas Parade. The other being the toy soldiers!!

 

[LuvClarice]

Maroo, Pam, and of course Matty - I can't tell what a present you've given all us by sharing. Thank you so much! What a very Merry Christmas this is turning out to be.

Kathy

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

Im in too!! Can't wait to read about your awsome trip. He is such a cutie!! I love the costume.

 

[maroo]

I won't keep you guys waiting any more! I just needed a bit of sleep before I got my fingers to writing!

First of all...a little background as to how this all came together.

Pamela - Mom to Matty (pacrosby on the boards) - found the boards just a few weeks before her son's Make a Wish Trip. There is a lot of information on her pre-trip report about how her son was approved to make his wish - but it was his specific wish that caught my eye.

We have dozens of children going on wish trips that are DISers and Disney grants their wishes all the time - children meet Mickey, the Princesses, eat with Cinderella, play with Stitch and "go to Disney World!" every single day as part of the Make a Wish Foundation. The characters needed to grant those wishes are almost always easily accessible to the children.

But occasionally a child comes along that makes a specific wish about Disney World - in this case Matty's wish was "to be a Gingerbread Man in the Disney World Christmas Parade." Honestly, I am not exactly sure how he came up with this. Maybe Pam would want to give us a little more background about where this fascination with the Gingerbread Men was born?

But when Make a Wish granted his Wish Trip - they contacted Disney about having Matty be IN the Christmas Parade as a Gingerbread Man and Disney (wisely) said that would not be possible. Maybe it was not so safe to put him IN the parade - and as someone that has been in a few parades...it is fun for about the first 10 minutes...but 60 minutes later your hand hurts so bad and your mouth is aching from smiling ...but it was not to be for Matty to be IN the Christmas Parade.

But his Mom had him all ready to thoroughly enjoy the Christmas Parade. Before she even discovered the DISboards, she had purchased tickets to the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and a Gingerbread Man costume for Matty which he planned to wear during the Christmas Parade. And it is so cute....

Wanna see Matty decked out in his costume?

Of course you do!

Oh my gosh, he is so cute!

Ok...so back to the story. Because his wish was so specific...and because I knew he would probably really not be able to go near the Gingerbread Men without a little help... I contacted our Angel on the DIS. There is a VERY nice DISer that set up Lucas' wish to meet Ed the Steam Train Engineer and the Lilly Belle - so I emailed her to see if she had any more contacts in Disney that would be willing to help Matty meet the Gingerbread Men. And she DID! She emailed several of her contacts there and a very nice CM in the Entertainment Division named Mike set up this wonderful evening!

So, once he said that they could set something up, he needed the date that the family would be at the Christmas Party. I PM'd Pamela to find out...her trip dates were the 10-16th...so I figured her party date would fall in those dates. I was going to Disney around the same time, but our party date was not until the 17th - so I figured I would miss them by just a few days......

But when I contacted Pamela, I found out that they had extended their trip on their own dime and had purchased tickets for one of the nights AFTER their stay at Give Kids the World was complete.

And I almost fell out of my chair....when she PM'd me back.... that they were ALSO going on the 17th!!!!!

Oh my gosh! It is happening AGAIN! I can be there! I can take pictures! This is the coolest thing EVER!

So I sent the information on to Mike. He said it would be fine for me to take some pictures and gave us instructions about where we should go. We were told to watch the FIRST Parade from Town Square - close to City Hall - and they would "find us" from there. He said that he would make sure that Matty could meet a few of the Gingerbread Men! I sent Mike the picture that Pamela had posted of Matty in his outfit so that they could recognize him!


Up Next: Is it going to RAIN??!?!

 

[maroo]

I'll be eagerly waiting to hear this story!!!!

Let me get my popcorn ready while I wait!

He he! The first installment is already here!!

Me too! I'm ready!

Oh, Maroo, you're evil!!!! You can't do this to us! No more teasers!!!!!

He he!

Nah. I would never do that!

I'm here, and I can't wait. What a cute little gingerbread man.

I can't wait to share it all with you guys!!

Hey......I know that little sweetie......he's MY baby!!!!!!!

I like your title. I've already decided to entitle my TR "Mom, Dad, 3 kids and a gingerbread man!!" (I know, I know....I'm my biggest fan). I look forward to reading all about all that magic from your perspective.

As an aside, I got the sweetest pm from a woman who's daughter knows one of those Gingerbread Men and had heard all about the evening (both before and after it occured). Wild huh?

ok, I'm on the edge of my seat. Get crackin' there girl!!

Pam (and Matty)

Great title!! I love it!

I am on it now! I am hoping to do a LOT of writing this weekend and crank this report out since I have so much time over the next couple of days.

I'm here!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

I can't wait to tell you all about it!!

I agree with Matty's mom! Get crackin'! No more waiting! This is your Christmas gift to us! I cannot wait to here about Matty as the gingerbread men are one of my favorite things in the Christmas Parade. The other being the toy soldiers!!

Merry Christmas!! It has started!
If you love some Gingerbread Men...you are going to LOVE this!

Maroo, Pam, and of course Matty - I can't tell what a present you've given all us by sharing. Thank you so much! What a very Merry Christmas this is turning out to be.

Kathy

I am so glad to be able to brighten your Christmas! I will be writing some more soon...so stay tuned!

Im in too!! Can't wait to read about your awesome trip. He is such a cutie!! I love the costume.

They are a neat family and he is so cute! Both in and out of his little costume!

 

[jessica52877]

Hey! That was a teaser! He IS quite adorable in his gingerbread costume!

 

[thatkid]

i'm so excited to read more!

 

[maroo]

Hey! That was a teaser! He IS quite adorable in his gingerbread costume!

Isn't he cute!

More coming soon, I promise!!!

Before the day is over, I will have ANOTHER update up!

i'm so excited to read more!

Hi darling! I can't wait to share it with ya!

 

[Momofwishkid]

Im here! Good job so far Maroo but your really leaving us hanging arent you I cant wait to hear more.

 

[maroo]

Well, it is raining here in Arkansas - where I am for Christmas - so there is not much to do but hang out and watch TV. And DIS. Of course. So...maybe I will put something up pretty soon.

Can you believe we have gotten almost TEN inches of rain in the last two days here and it is STILL raining?!?!

 

[kimmylaj]

maroo , you know i love you but i should be cooking not checking for updates.
oh well, i 'll be back for more later, i only have about 50 boxes to put ribbons on while i wait

 

[maroo]

Where were we?

Oh...Well...I suppose we really have not even started! Sorry about that!


For weeks before our trip, I had been studying the weather. Particularly paying attention to THIS night. December 17, 2009. I was quite concerned for our trip because the young lady I was traveling with has a severe reaction to cold weather and the weather forecast had been showing a low of 41 degrees (wind chill in the 30's) and highs in the low 60's on December 17th. That forecast really freaked me out - so much so that I shipped a bunch of very warm clothes to our resort in case we needed them for this night.

But as we got closer to our trip, the forecast began to change and the low temperatures got up in the 50's and then even showed a LOW in the 60's! This was a huge blessing for us! But as we neared this day, the rain started to show up in the forecast with the warm weather. The morning of the big day the forecast showed a low of 65! But also a 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms. The forecast even warned of heavy rain and high winds. Great.

But we got up that morning and packed our ponchos and by that evening it had rained some, but seemed to be clearing up. I was checking the radar with my iPhone about once every 5 minutes. But the storms seemed to be gone.

My grand plan had my group of 7 arriving to the Magic Kingdom at 4:00 sharp with our tickets so that we could eat and get everyone settled before the first parade. I figured we would all - Matty's family included - watch the first parade from Town Square that way we could all basically stay together for the evening.

For reasons that will be revealed later my other trip report, my group did not make it to the Magic Kingdom until...almost SEVEN. I needed to get my group settled with a plan, we all needed to eat and I needed to get to Matty's family ASAP. So my group had a quick meeting with the MVMCP Map and decided that they would do things in a different order and watch the second parade. So we split off pretty quick and I called Pamela to meet up with them.

It was so cool to meet Pamela, Steven, Matty and his brothers and sister! They were so sweet! This was a little different than some of my other meets, because this was really the first time that we had talked (besides a few short conversations about where to meet, etc) - but I felt very comfortable with them instantly!

We wanted to make sure and get a great spot for the parade, so we lined up VERY early near the bend of the street on Town Square - right by City Hall.

When we lined up we were one of the only people on the street.

Here is a picture of where we ended up (these pictures were taken later when some people had lined up!)

Looking to the left...

Looking to the right....

Steven and I walked over to Casey's to get some supper for the whole crew - Yummy Casey's! (But I really wish they would bring back the OLD hot dogs! Who wants to be healthy on vacation?!? But I digress!)

At 8:15 the parade was starting in Frontierland.

And at 8:15 THIS is what the "crowds" looked like by us waiting for the parade...(not a great picture, but you will get the idea)...

Can you believe that?!?! It was barely one person deep - on Town Square! - and this was the FIRST parade!

I think that the threat of bad weather kept a lot of people from braving the "weather" for the party.

Our weather, though, was PERFECT! I don't recall any more than sprinkles the whole night! And it was in the upper 60's all night, too! PERFECT weather!

At 8:15 Matty put on his costume and got settled for the parade!!!

Isn't he cute!

Up Next: The Parade Begins!