Generic Holiday Themed December Exercise Challenge



@Twilight Sparkle Thank you for the mini trip reporting! Sounds like a great trip so far and I think it's so cool that you got to see NPH for the Candlelight Processional! And congrats on becoming Carrot Nose Orange! Adding 80 minutes from the rest of this week to bring me up to Carrot Nose Orange too! Way to go BonnieF, MikeNamez and the whole Team for reaching Bright Lights Blue!

Went to the Disney Store today to get the last set of the Mickey Memory pins and took a look at the Christmas ornaments. I was kind of disappointed in their selection. I'll share my favorite Disney Christmas ornament that I have, and if anyone else wants to share any photos or stories of favorite ornaments, please do!
 
We're back in the land of reality now. :sad::sad1::sad::sad1::sad::sad1: Our plane arrived home around midnight last night. We went from a sunny 72 at Disney Springs yesterday to a wet 37 degrees here that refuses to go away.

My last three days were lower walking days because we had less hours and smaller parks, so I just have 687 more minutes to add through yesterday:

1363/2000

We went once the first week of December, and the holiday stuff was so fun.

The holiday stuff makes me want to be in WDW in Dec from now on. My daughter missed HEA, though, so we'd have to make sure we include that in the schedule should we travel at the same time another year. The decorations in every park and in DS are gorgeous, but my favorites were in AK. I love the use of natural materials and cultural items in the decorations there.

TwilightSparkle, loving the TR!! Have you had any Christmas treats?

Thanks! We did try some Christmas treats. At the Holiday Wishes and Jingle Bell Jingle Bam parties, we had smaller versions of the in-park treat offerings. I can say without a doubt, stay away from the Scrooge McDuck eggnog custard in MK. Ugh! That was gross,and I usually really like eggnog. The eggnog dessert we had at Minnie's Holiday Dine was so much better. The yule log at MK was delicious but super rich. I could only eat a couple of bites. The peppermint crunch cookie they handed out at MVMCP was my favorite of the cookies. One of our Minnie Van drivers said the Wreck it Ralph cupcake (which is gigantic!) was a bit too peppermint flavored for him, but we saw a lot of people with them. My favorite treat came from the Jingle Bell Jingle Bam dessert party. It was the gingerbread martini. I could marry that thing. It was crazy good. I must figure out how to recreate that at home. I tried the hot chocolate martini, too, but it's not nearly as good, in my opinion. Supposedly there's a very similar gingerbread drink at one of the quick service locations in HS.

@Twilight Sparkle Thank you for the mini trip reporting! Sounds like a great trip so far and I think it's so cool that you got to see NPH for the Candlelight Processional!

Happy to indulge with the mini-trip reporting! Glad you don't mind. I thought it went along with the loose holiday theme. It was a great trip - just too short, as usual. CP with NPH was wonderful, but I really think it would have been wonderful no matter the narrator. It's a beautiful show. The choir and orchestra are the true stars. The Voices of Liberty were the featured vocalists, and deservedly so. As someone who likes to sing, their first soprano is inspiring. Life goals! NPH was a nice extra geeking out factor because I love him in whatever he's in, but I would have been just as excited to see Jodi Benson, Auli'i Cravalho, Whoopi, John Stamos, Chita Rivera, etc. CP would be a must do for me from now on.

In case anyone visiting this month is interested, my ranking of the three Christmas nighttime shows is:
1) Illuminations with holiday tag
2) Jingle Bell Jingle Bam - super cute show, great lights, fun projections, decent fireworks, and SNOW!!!!!
3) Holiday Wishes - very nice but not as impressive as the first two; we had a great view at the Terrace Dessert party, though, so I would absolutely do that again if we wanted to see this show; neither of us thought this was as good of a show as HEA, though, so I would try to work in HEA next time.

And my favorite fun holiday moment of the trip was eating a late lunch/early dinner at Chefs de France and having Pere Noel peek in the window and smile and wave to us. Where else would that happen?!?!

@PollyannaMom , I'm so excited for you and your family to get to experience WDW at this time of year. I hope you guys have as much fun and love it as much as we did! Please share your highlights here.

@Elizabeth Smith, I love your Chip and Dale ornament! Adorable! If I can figure out how to get photos from my phone to here, I will play along, too.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!
 


As I'm sitting at my desk I shall live vicariously through you seeing your in Disney lol. Be sure to update us again when you can and HAVE FUN!

Lol! So sorry I didn't return with an update before today. We were just go, go, go all week, trying to cram 2 weeks' worth of touring into 5 days. We still didn't get to do everything we wanted but we focused on being happy with what we were able to accomplish. It was a fabulous time spent with my sweet, growing-up-too-quickly daughter. One accomplishment we are super proud of was fitting in all three Toy Story Land rides in a relatively short period of time. We couldn't get a FP for Slinky, so we thought that was a lost cause. We did have a FP for Midway Mania pre-booked and did it as our last original FP that day. Then we were able to get a bonus FP for Alien Swirling Saucers and did that. When we got off of that, the wait for Slinky had dropped to 55 minutes, so we booked it over there and rode it just after dark which is exactly when I wanted to ride it. So we did all three rides in less than 90 minutes. It was incredible luck.

I wish you could take a break from work and hop on a plane to WDW to experience the holiday fun for yourself! ::yes::
 
I'll share my favorite Disney Christmas ornament that I have, and if anyone else wants to share any photos or stories of favorite ornaments, please do!

Here are some of mine:

ornament 1 - big sparkle.JPG ornament 2 - 2008.JPG ornament 3 - 100 years.JPG ornament 4 - bell.JPG ornament 5 - train.JPG ornament 6 - Chip and Dale.JPG

Most don't have real "stories" - just the ornament we liked on a particular trip. (We tend to buy one from each vacation.)

The bell one is special, though, because it was from DS's first time at WDW. - He was only a year and a half, and we were visiting relatives in Florida, but took him to MK for a day.

The 100 Years of Magic one was the year of Walt's 100th birthday, and the Chip & Dale set is the newest addition.
 
Here are some of mine:

View attachment 369092 View attachment 369093 View attachment 369094 View attachment 369095 View attachment 369096 View attachment 369097

Most don't have real "stories" - just the ornament we liked on a particular trip. (We tend to buy one from each vacation.)

The bell one is special, though, because it was from DS's first time at WDW. - He was only a year and a half, and we were visiting relatives in Florida, but took him to MK for a day.

The 100 Years of Magic one was the year of Walt's 100th birthday, and the Chip & Dale set is the newest addition.

Beautiful ornaments!

My favorite is not a Disney ornament, and it does have a story. It was given to me in the 3rd grade by my best friend. We moved a lot when I was growing up, and it was really difficult to make friends, so I think that's why I cherish this particular ornament so much. I was able to stay in one place for four years, and this girl and I remained friends the entire time. Unfortunately, we lost touch once I moved again, but I still have this ornament to remind me of her.

upload_2018-12-10_12-34-38.png
 
Adding 65 minutes from the weekend and today.

We have many color changes to report!

PollyannaMom is Bright Lights Blue, TwilightSparkle shot right up to Rosy Cheek Pink, and sophy1996, MikeNamez, and the Team have all become Carrot Nose Orange!

Thought I'd take a moment and share a cute Holiday DIY that I worked on over the weekend.



If anyone else has any Holiday DIYs or homemade treats they want to share, go right ahead! Part of what makes the season so festive is seeing so many creative ideas!
 

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