Every Day's a Holiday (3 updates 12/7 page 10)

[mommy2mrb]

Happy you had a great thanksgiving!
Thank you for your sweet words about Megan! She loves hanging with JJ , we are looking forward to tomorrow looks like the weather will be good for swimming too! Will be nice to just relax and talk!
We are heading out about 1030 for AK
See you tomorrow night let me know when you are heading up

 

[lovethattink]

As do I. I saw the real Santa at our mall last year First time in a long time that I had seen him!

I never get tired of looking at Christmas trees and decorations. And now when I watch the parade on Christmas morning, I can remember these pictures and think of you!

Very cool! Did you visit with him?

Me either. I love the music, the decorations, the food, etc.

Happy you had a great thanksgiving!
Thank you for your sweet words about Megan! She loves hanging with JJ , we are looking forward to tomorrow looks like the weather will be good for swimming too! Will be nice to just relax and talk!
We are heading out about 1030 for AK
See you tomorrow night let me know when you are heading up

Look forward to seeing you. Enjoy your time volunteering at GKTW!!

I saw you rode Everest 3 times with minimal wait, that's great! Enjoy your meet with Nini!

I'll text when we leave.

 

[mommy2mrb]

We did two more time tonight at sunset standby was 15 min... We never did meet up with Nini see you tomorrow

 

[ladylyons]

The characters are very popular here too. The lines of the more popular ones require getting in line an hour or two early. We did that last year at MNSSHP, but this year we didn't do that for any of the parties. However, we did see characters! We also didn't line up early for the parades or fireworks. Just played it by ear and things worked out fine! In fact, better than fine. We went to the train station area for the fireworks, most people were at the hub instead.

Thanks, we had a very nice time with Lisa and Megan. The weather was perfect too. We spent 5 hours at the park, something we haven't been able to do in a long time!

Some of his tics he can hide and they are very mild. But these legs ones where he kicks like crazy can't be hidden, he can't walk, loses balance if he's standing and they totally interfere. They are a real pain for him. He says they hurt too. Seems like they are something that are just going to pop up every now and then.

I have a relative who has Tourette's and he had very severe full body tics. He'd spend hours thrashing about on the floor. His mom assured me once he got out of puberty they stopped. He's in college and doing great now.

Enjoy your time with family!.

The characters are popular no matter if it's a party or not. But it's just a matter of if we're willing to wait or not. I'm glad you were able to see some at least.

Glad you got to spend the time with Lisa and Megan. And all that time when it's not something your normally able to do is great.

That's got to be hard for JJ. I really hope he out grows them as he get's older.

I hope you were able to have a great time with your family too!! We did have a great time at my parent's and the kids were sad when they realized we had to go home.

So happy to see you had such a great spot for the parade!! I think that's the same spot we were in when we saw SpectroMagic in 2009. I do love the holiday's at the park and had a hard day on Friday. I was just sad that we weren't at DL but I got past it by watching my kids play with Grandpa. They sure do love their grandparent's.

 

[annmarieda]

Great parade pics! And the "not real santa" ... I have a picture with dd and that same santa.

 

[DisNorth]

Christmas at Disney looks so cool, glad you ended up at a slow party night! I hope to see Christmas at Disney some day!

I think it's funny that you had a hard time at the performances getting the characters with their eyes open. Sounds like trying to take photos of my family.

 

[WDWRids]

As always, love love love your photos! What great shots of the party, meet and greets and the parade! The castle looks amazing.....ok, I'm sold...we will do the party next year. No doubt about it!

Have to know - did JJ say the Santa at the end of the party was the "real" Santa or was it a helper? His comment on the one by the train station was too cute.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving with family!

 

[lovethattink]

We did two more time tonight at sunset standby was 15 min... We never did meet up with Nini see you tomorrow

That's so great that with all the holiday crowds, you completely avoided the crowds at AK! I'm glad you got to enjoy EE so many times. Bummer about Nini. I assume it was because of all her magic band woes.

I've really been slacking here. We've seen each other 3 times since you posted this! I'm downloading the pictures now.

 

[lovethattink]

The characters are popular no matter if it's a party or not. But it's just a matter of if we're willing to wait or not. I'm glad you were able to see some at least.

Glad you got to spend the time with Lisa and Megan. And all that time when it's not something your normally able to do is great.

That's got to be hard for JJ. I really hope he out grows them as he get's older.

I hope you were able to have a great time with your family too!! We did have a great time at my parent's and the kids were sad when they realized we had to go home.

So happy to see you had such a great spot for the parade!! I think that's the same spot we were in when we saw SpectroMagic in 2009. I do love the holiday's at the park and had a hard day on Friday. I was just sad that we weren't at DL but I got past it by watching my kids play with Grandpa. They sure do love their grandparent's.

Same here with certain characters, Merida is one that comes to mind. Her queue is always huge.

We've enjoyed spending time with Lisa and Megan. We had two really nice days together. Yesterday we saw each other, but it was for a hello at the American Pavilion and a good-bye at Norway. Of course, there was texting in between too. I'm so glad they were able to set the time aside to visit with us. The pictures from our time at MK and AoA are downloading now.

I'm glad you had a nice Thanksgiving with the family and the kids enjoyed spending time with their grandparents.

That's great you got the same spot in 2009. I guess it must not be the first place people look to stand?

 

[lovethattink]

Great parade pics! And the "not real santa" ... I have a picture with dd and that same santa.

Thanks!

He asked Grandma if Santa was real or not over Thanksgiving. She told him some people believe in Santa and some don't. She suggested just to be safe that his stocking gets filled, he should believe.

How cool! That's great that the same one returned.

 

[lovethattink]

Christmas at Disney looks so cool, glad you ended up at a slow party night! I hope to see Christmas at Disney some day!

I think it's funny that you had a hard time at the performances getting the characters with their eyes open. Sounds like trying to take photos of my family.

So glad you are joining in! Christmas at Disney is the best! The party really couldn't have been better crowd-wise. I hope you get the chance to see Christmas at Disney. I think my second favorite would be the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot. Those flowers are amazing!

I have probably 30 pictures of eyes shut. So you understand! Lol.

With my family, the problem is not knowing which camera to look at. The cell phone, the Nikkon?? So half end up looking at one and the other half at the other. Or photopass adds even more to look at, lol.

 

[lovethattink]

As always, love love love your photos! What great shots of the party, meet and greets and the parade! The castle looks amazing.....ok, I'm sold...we will do the party next year. No doubt about it!

Have to know - did JJ say the Santa at the end of the party was the "real" Santa or was it a helper? His comment on the one by the train station was too cute.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving with family!

Thank you! I'm sure you'll love it! Just start looking for the party thread for 2014 closer to your dates. It's a helpful thread.

The parade Santa was also a helper. You can tell by the beard, fyi.

We had a vey nice Thanksgiving. It was relaxing for me, JJ and Grandma. Dh worked every day including Thanksgiving so he visited with his parents before and after work. For Grumpy and Grandpa it was a fishing extravaganza. They caught so many fish. They fished every day, and Grumpy had 4 school projects due this week. He had to pull an all nighter Sunday for Monday. He had another project due today. Tomorrow he no school and no work, so I'm sure he will try to rest and finish up with Thursday's project. Next week is finals.

How was your Thanksgiving?

 

[lovethattink]

Disney Friends are the Best​

Kaoden (Michele) had found some Star Wars Mad Libs and thought of JJ right away. They arrived a few weeks ago, and with perfect timing. The grammar in his language arts unit for November was all about nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. The mad libs were the perfect way to reinforce the grammar he was learning. As soon as he opened them, we called Michele so he could thank her. Here is the picture. I didn't notice he was holding them up back to back and not fanned. There are two books there, both Star Wars. He is getting so many laughs from them!

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Speaking of Michele, she loves Duffy the Bear. We were walking by this display of Duffy Pillows in the Emporium so I snapped a picture for her.

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The day before my company arrived for Thanksgiving, we went to the MK to meet up with Lisa and Megan. They had three FP+ reservations, one for Voyage of the Little Mermaid, another for Space Mountain, and another for Big Thunder MT.

The line at GS was pretty long and we had to renew JJ's DAS. So they got in line. I joined them and JJ and dh waited outside of the line until it was our turn. Then a cm opened the chain and they joined us.

Once again, in those two weeks, he only used the DAS twice.

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Their FP+ for The Mermaid was in the very near future. So I went to Fantasyland and checked out the time for a FP- for the same attraction. It worked out perfectly. The return time was in their return time window!! JJ wanted to ride Buzz, but rather than walk all the way to Tomorrowland, I stopped at Pooh and got him a return time for there. I met back up with them near the Columbia Harbour House for some Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.

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Since a DIS meet didn't happen unless a picture is there to prove it, here's me and Lisa.

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We rode Voyage of the Little Mermaid (FP+ for Lisa and Megan, FP- for us). Construction is really taking shape at the Mine ride. They were painting the mountain.

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We stopped back to ride Pooh, but it was down. Apparently Pooh spilled honey all over the attraction and they had to clean up his spill. It was nearing lunch time anyway, so we were off to Pecos Bill's.

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JJ got his favorite kid's turkey sandwich minus the bread, fries and grapes. DH wanted chili cheese fries, but ordered each item separately. And I got a burger that I split with him and sweet potato fries for me. I love their sweet potato fries!!

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By the time we were done eating, the honey was cleaned up and Pooh was back up and working. The line FP line was huge because of so many people returning. We took the time as a photo-op and watched the construction.

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We stopped by Buzz after that for a return time on JJ's DAS since this was the one he REALLY wanted to ride. There was plenty of time between their Space MT return time and Buzz's so we rode the TTA/People Mover.

JJ was very quick to ditch us and sit with them.

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The ride stopped while we were in the tunnel overlooking Buzz Lightyear. The lights in the tunnel came on.

You can see the park was fairly crowded.

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I can't remember which came first, their FP+ return time for Space MT or the Buzz return time? I think we rode Buzz first, but not 100% certain. When they rode Space Mt (FP+) and we sat outside waiting for them.

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JJ wanted to ride "the cars" and got a return time on his DAS. Lisa, Megan and myself didn't want to ride. I waited on the side for them, and it was close to their FP+ time for Big Thunder, so we all said goodbyes and parted ways. We had a great time with them. JJ adores and really looked up to Megan. She was so good with him too.

We called it a day and headed home.​

Almost a week later, we met up with them at their resort, AoA for dinner. We didn't take any pictures of the food. I had a kid's chicken parmesan. It was really good. JJ had a pizza. Dh had a Surf and Surf burger. It was so nice to spend time with them again. In fact, it was perfect for JJ. His grandparents left that morning for home and he was so sad. This gave him something really happy to look forward to.

 

[lovethattink]

Bibbidy Bobbidy Woohoo!

This ain't about no boutique! But there is a big hint of a fairy godmother involved. In fact, JJ's fairy godmother!

Yesterday we went to Epcot with the hopes that we'd meet up with Lisa and Megan after JJ's classes.

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They had a 5:15 ADR for dinner. We were walking by Canada when they were in line for Santa, so we headed up that way to see them.

Will have to check this stand out another day



and this one too

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I walked right by them and they by me, but they spotted JJ right away.

They were doing some kind of a quest (Great Race, I think?) and Megan was ready to keep moving. I said I wanted to go say hi to someone and suggested we meet up with them afterwards. But Lisa suggested we meet up at Norway after their dinner in France. They were also on a mission to see all the storytellers and they had Norway's left to get. So we said a quick hello and goodbye and they were on their way to Japan and we headed to say hello to our friend.

We stopped for a hello and Neil Patrick Harris was doing a sound check. He was dressed incognito wearing a sweat shirt, shorts and baseball hat. But the voice was definitely recognizable!

Before we knew it, JJ's fairy godmother waved her wand and...



You'll see soon enough...

We saw part of this storyteller's story.



And then we saw most of this storyteller's story.

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Then the spell was cast and the magic began as we were sitting in the VIP section for the Candlelight Processional!!! Wow!

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After the show, we headed to Norway. I was checking out KTP's character locator app to see where the princesses from Frozen were. According to the app, they were at the Puffin's Roost in Norway. So we set off to find the shop. The queue was very long. Once cm told us probably an hour to an hour and a half wait. However another cm stopped by and asked how many in our party and told us we were counted in for the 6:50 M&G.

The queue was very well run with 2 cm manning it. One from within the line and one outside the line. Once counted people were free to enter and exit as long as someone held their spot. Everyone in line was excited to see the new princesses. Both the guests and cm were very laid back and it was actually an enjoyable wait. The mom and kids in front of us exited and re-entered half dozen times. It sounds chaotic, but it wasn't. In fact, it was very well organized.

Megan and Lisa stopped by the line to say goodbye. It was great to see them yesterday, even if it was only for a hello and a goodbye!

All total we waited about 30 minutes, not the hour to hour and a half we were told was possible. JJ ate his snack of grapes and cheese while waiting and played a video game.

The M&G was great! He was wearing his reindeer ears and they remarked how it reminded them of Sven. They posed for pictures and JJ asked where Olaf was. They told him he was traveling around Epcot.

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I loved their set, backdrop, carpet, etc. The room looked regal and there were no signs of trolls.

JJ said it was the best day ever and we had to agree with him!

 

[ladylyons]

Same here with certain characters, Merida is one that comes to mind. Her queue is always huge.

We've enjoyed spending time with Lisa and Megan. We had two really nice days together. Yesterday we saw each other, but it was for a hello at the American Pavilion and a good-bye at Norway. Of course, there was texting in between too. I'm so glad they were able to set the time aside to visit with us. The pictures from our time at MK and AoA are downloading now.

I'm glad you had a nice Thanksgiving with the family and the kids enjoyed spending time with their grandparents.

That's great you got the same spot in 2009. I guess it must not be the first place people look to stand?

We always have long lines for the Princesses and depending on the day The Winnie the Pooh characters. I've never seen Merida's line too long. But that could be it's because we are over near it at the beginning of the day so it could be longer later in the day. The other line I'd seen a lot was for Rapunzel but she now meets after her show at DL and the line doesn't get as long as it used too.

Love the pictures of you guys with Lisa and Megan. Glad you had such a great time with them.

I loved the pictures with the new characters. It looks great!!

They love getting to spend time with their grandparent's. We just don't get to see them as much as we'd like to.

It might not be a popular spot but then again my family held the spot while I sat in one of the rocking chairs and fed Sarah (she was only 8 months old at the time) and that was a lot more comfortable than trying to sit on the ground.

 

[annmarieda]

What a great day with Meghan and Lisa!!!

I am absolutely jealous that you got to see NPH! Not to mention that you got to be in the VIP section! That is AWESOME!! I really want to try and catch him when he narrates CP... but it seems he just doesn't do as many nights as sum do.


Great update!!!

 

[lovethattink]

We always have long lines for the Princesses and depending on the day The Winnie the Pooh characters. I've never seen Merida's line too long. But that could be it's because we are over near it at the beginning of the day so it could be longer later in the day. The other line I'd seen a lot was for Rapunzel but she now meets after her show at DL and the line doesn't get as long as it used too.

Love the pictures of you guys with Lisa and Megan. Glad you had such a great time with them.

I loved the pictures with the new characters. It looks great!!

They love getting to spend time with their grandparent's. We just don't get to see them as much as we'd like to.

It might not be a popular spot but then again my family held the spot while I sat in one of the rocking chairs and fed Sarah (she was only 8 months old at the time) and that was a lot more comfortable than trying to sit on the ground.

One thing good about Rapunzel at WDW, you can fast pass it!

Had fun with Megan and Lisa.

The new characters were fun. But with 3 cameras going, there were only 2 pictures where everyone was looking at the same place, lol.

It's tough when we live a good distance away from them.

There's no curb there anymore. That was taken away all along the train station area. So it's a level area right to the street. We stood and there was nobody behind us.

What a great day with Meghan and Lisa!!!

I am absolutely jealous that you got to see NPH! Not to mention that you got to be in the VIP section! That is AWESOME!! I really want to try and catch him when he narrates CP... but it seems he just doesn't do as many nights as sum do.


Great update!!!

It was great! Even with the crowds we covered a good amount of rides. The weather was cool, so we were able to stay 5 hours. 2 or 3 is usually JJ's max in warm weather. That drop in temperature also made him feel great! He walked a lot, was happy, and a whole different person than when it's hot.

I'm sure that was a once in a lifetime thing! We attempted to see him before, but the lines were too long and temps were too high. Monday night was perfect all around. He added several of his own personal touches to the narration. He was fantastic!

 

[WDWRids]

JJ's Fair Godmother sprinkled lots of wonderful pixie dust for this one! I just think NPH would be phenominal! VIP seats, too! Fantastic!! Those menu boards looks amazing. I think I'm gaining weight just looking at them!

Thanksgiving was ok - tough with someone missing this year on both sides of the family. I'll enjoy Christmas (as it is my favorite time of year) but ready to kiss 2013 goodbye....

 

[lovethattink]

JJ's Fair Godmother sprinkled lots of wonderful pixie dust for this one! I just think NPH would be phenominal! VIP seats, too! Fantastic!! Those menu boards looks amazing. I think I'm gaining weight just looking at them!

Thanksgiving was ok - tough with someone missing this year on both sides of the family. I'll enjoy Christmas (as it is my favorite time of year) but ready to kiss 2013 goodbye....

It was phenomenal. NPH was great. We found out later that night that two of JJ's theater friends sang in the later shows. VIP seats were awesome. We were third row, by the part of the stage that juts out. I'm excited to go back and try some of the treats. Lisa had a drink at Germany that looked and sounded delicious. Would also like to try that too. I think the apple cider with marshmello topping is also calling. It's good I can't eat chocolate or I'd be in big trouble. So many things sound yummy.

It is very tough missing loved ones at Thanksgiving. Here's looking forward to 2014!

 

[mickeystoontown]

How fun that you were able to meet up with Lisa and Megan several times during their trip! I know that JJ had to be super excited about that.

It's fantastic that you were given VIP seating for the Candelight Processional and were so close to Neal Patrick Harris. Love him!