Healing at our Happy Place: making GOOD 2017 memories: Mar, May, Aug, Oct, Dec TRs (3/24 UPDATE)

[kittylady1972]

BIG DECEMBER UPDATE!

So I may not have mentioned this, but for my son's 17th birthday back in MARCH, I gifted him ANY Disney tour he wanted to take on me. Of course, he's never cashed in on it even though I've mentioned it a few times during our previous trips.

One that I happened to mention to him not too long ago was the Dine with an Imagineer, as he's very much into art and I though this might be something he'd enjoy hearing about from a Disney designer. He was very excited about this option, but of course booking this is extremely difficult.

Several months ago I managed to snag a Dine with an Imagineer at Brown Derby...for APRIL of next year. Since this would be right after my son turns 18, I thought perhaps I'd surprise him with this for his NEXT birthday. However I decided April wasn't the best time so I'd continue to check for other reservations.

This brings me to this morning, when I was checking the future DWAI calendar...and happened to look into the once a MONTH version at Citrico's. Imagine my shock when I found a reservation for NEXT week, while we are there, for ONE person! I snagged it!

My son is a very mature 17.5 year old and also a big foodie and loved Citrico's when we ate there over the summer. So this is a win-win in so many ways, even though it's a very belated birthday gift for him. I haven't told him yet, but hopefully he'll be excited about it even though he'll be there without any of us. I'm thinking that perhaps the rest of us will try to dine somewhere nearby (we've never tried Grand Floridian Cafe) while he's having his meal there.

I really hope he's as excited about this as I am getting it for him. I think it's going to be such a cool experience for him and really right up his alley.

Can you believe we leave for our FINAL 2017 Walt Disney World trip in just ONE WEEK??

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Citricos was sooooo good! We ate there a few weeks ago and it has quickly turned into one of our favorite Sigs...
I have had dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe a couple times now, and think it's pretty good (the last time was July of 2016). I'd actually like to try breakfast there next...

 

[kittylady1972]

SOOOOOO CLOOOOOOOSE NOW!

So we leave in just over 48 hours...ok more like closer to 60 hours but who is counting right?

So I talked to my son about the Dine with an Imagineer dinner. He was excited but at the same time...not.

He would really like this "gift" to be something he could enjoy with at least one other member of the family. And I totally get that. And I've stalked the site a few times since then with no luck for one more spot, which is pretty much what I expected. I'll most likely end up cancelling this dinner, which I have to do by Tuesday. Somebody else will be very happy to get it I'm sure.

In the meantime I have managed to snag another Dine with an Imagineer for June, which means I'd just HAVE to make another trip with him by that time. That may end up being a post HS graduation trip I guess.

In other news, I have yet to do ANY packing. I'm slowly getting a little bit of my energy back after radiation treatment. I was told the tiredness could linger about a week or two afterwards, and it has but I'm getting better and I got back on the tennis courts this weekend which felt great. Yet last night after dinner I did fall asleep around 8pm and ended up in bed well before my normal 10:30pm or so bedtime. It means that clean laundry that is all sitting in baskets in my room did not get put away, but that's nothing new. Some of that laundry will be coming with me anyway.

Temps in Florida by our arrival our going to be in the 60s I think, but back home in Maryland they will be having highs in the 40s beginning Wednesday, so we are getting out at a good time. Of course my daughter isn't happy it won't be 70s or 80s but still warmer than here and of course when we return on Sunday evening I think the HIGH here will be 37. Guess we better make sure we have some warm clothes for when we get off the plane!

It's going to be a very busy week at home though. Today I need to get home and pack because I am playing tennis tonight which means I leave my house at about 7:30pm and return around 10pm. Tomorrow my dad and his girlfriend are coming over from dinner. My dad is driving up from North Carolina to Maryland to spend time with his girlfriend here and had planned to be here Wed-Sun and asked if we wanted to have dinner Friday. When I told him we'd be out of town, but depending on when he was going back home to NC we could do it after, it turns out he's leaving Sunday so he has decided to come up a day earlier instead. On the one hand, I'm happy that he's making an effort to see us but on the other hand...there's the girlfriend thing that we are all still trying very very hard to get used to right now. This may have been mentioned here before, or not, but my dad starting "dating" this woman back in April, about two months after my mom passed...and right at the same time that I was diagnosed with cancer and really already struggling emotionally with my mom's death and my own diagnosis. Since that time, it's been a very difficult thing for my brother and I to deal with but we are trying very very hard to get used to this new "normal" for us. My dad is 71 years old and so we want him to be happy and it's not like my mom is coming back. It's still hard to see him with somebody else though and he really does a lot of trying to "sell" his new girlfriend to me at times. This long distance thing I am sure is tough for him, so I have a feeling that it won't be long before she is living with him in NC, and THAT is going to be even more difficult for all of us. We'll manage, I'm sure, as my dad has already told both my brother and I that he has no intention of getting married again but that he would like her to live with him and all we asked it that he at least let us get through our first holidays without our mom (whose birthday was also last week) before that happens. Ok...enough about that

Dinner on Tuesday, and then we will all be at work/school on Wednesday until our normal times. Kids should be home from school around 3:15pm, and I'll be home from work around the same time, and then we'll basically get the cats all settled with extra food and water and pack our stuff and head out. My DH wants to have my FIL picked up by 3:45pm and then we hit the airport...a 15 minute drive for us. I expect we'll easily be at the gates by 4:30pm for our 6pm flight.

I know it will be over before we know it but right now so excited that we are so close!

 

[kittylady1972]

We are now at just over 24 hours to go!

I packed last night...lots of jeans and t-shirts with sweatshirts because the weather...brrr! However warmer than here than in Maryland for sure!



Kids aren't even going to bother with packing bathing suits...good call! I'm not packing shorts either.

We will have plenty to keep us busy. I've made a few more ADRs...and cancelled some also. I even debated switching our resort YESTERDAY but looks like that resort is no longer available today and so we will remain at POR.

I am looking forward to this short and sweet get away for a few days. I know it's going to go by way too fast but we'll still have some good experiences I'm sure.

I think we check-in for our flight tonight sometime, but since we have assigned seats it's no big deal. Coming back will be a different story as we'd have to check-in for that flight DURING the Candlelight Processional, or at least right before it so at least we'll be sitting down most likely...or in line to get our seats. Either way.

Once we return from vacation, things won't be slowing down at all. We will have Christmas decorations to finish, a tree to buy and put up, and will need to finish our shopping. It's much harder this year with older kids, and we also have two less people to buy for this year with both of our moms no longer with us. Frank at least has an idea for his dad, but my mom used to give me ideas for my dad and this year...I have NOTHING. I'll have to see what I figure out about that.

Anyway two days of work to get through, a dinner with my dad and his girlfriend to get through tonight, and then it will be one more sleep until our trip!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WALT DISNEY!!!

 

[Raeven]

We are now at just over 24 hours to go!

I packed last night...lots of jeans and t-shirts with sweatshirts because the weather...brrr! However warmer than here than in Maryland for sure!

I know it looks so chilly for FL!

 

[camper06]

Have a great trip!!

 

[angryduck71]

I finally thought I'd look up and see if you'd done a trip report for this one (I've been lazy about checking the boards). I at least got a PTR. Hugs to you and can't wait to read the actual trip report!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Have a GREAT trip!!!!! I can't wait to read all about it...

 

[kittylady1972]

Sorry for the delay everybody...but we are BACK!

We had a great time overall, but OH MY GOSH it was cold in Florida...colder than it's ever been when we were there. Of course, back home in Maryland it was snowing, so hard to complain too much. Well my KIDS did some complaining about missing the light snow and cold and Saturday...but it wasn't enough to really enjoy anyway and on a weekend so they weren't missing any school. I was happy to miss it...but not happy to arrive to the airport at 10:30pm Sunday night and have to brush off snow and scrape my windows to leave the parking lot!

Quick recap: Wed - Friday or so were pretty nice weather days, with I think Friday being the warmest. My daughter and I were the only ones brave enough to hit the Magic Kingdom after landing Wednesday night, but I'm glad we did:



We enjoyed pretty nice weather Thursday and Friday, had a great day at MK on Thursday with relatively low crowds and an even better weather day Friday at EPCOT:



I really enjoyed our stay at Port Orleans Riverside. While the rooms were still a bit small for my liking, we ended up with connecting rooms and even though all 5 of us could have slept in the same room, my FIL was kind enough to let my oldest son sleep in the room with him. I think he and my oldest son really bonded a lot on this trip. It was nice to see them together.

Food choices were pretty good, as we enjoyed breakfast every morning in the food court at POR, and dinner one night we walked over to French Quarter which was a good choice. I made DH take this photo there:




They ended up having some really good food at that food court, with huge portion sizes. I had a very good shrimp and grits that I didn't even come close to finishing and I tried my first beignets.

I forced my family members to meet a few characters, absolute torture for them.



Friday and Saturday were not the nicest weather days at all. Friday morning it was raining at AK but we still soldiered on there. I managed to snag a 6th FP for Flight of Passage at our designated time that afternoon so we all got to ride together:



Friday night was the Candlelight Processional with Kurt Douglas narrating and MAN was it COLD! We still got through it though, even with the kid complaints:




Our final day on Sunday...more cold and the tram ride...was like torture. Check out these poor folks:




Yes layers with hats and gloves were necessary...I think it was low forties and the wind chill...especially on the tram...BRRR! We made it through the final day at HS and it wasn't too bad with some afternoon sun, as long as you stayed in the sun and not the shade.

Anyway I'll try to get around to a TR soon enough. Currently I am in major decorating mode, as we got home late Sunday night, I worked yesterday, came home and napped, then we went out and bought our tree:



Cat inspection:



so the rest of my evening (until about 10:30pm) was spent decorating, mostly the outside of my house right now before the temps dip into the teens here in the next day or two! Tree is up inside but not decorated. We are having a holiday party on Saturday...and I have no idea what food I'm preparing and I still have lots of decorating to do. Of course still not done shopping either. These next two weeks (or less than that...EEK!) are going to be crazy!

Anyway hopefully I'll get some updates here at some point!

 

[piglet1979]

Sounds like you guys had a great trip despite the cold.

I am right there with you about Christmas. I can't believe either that Christmas is less then 2 weeks away now. I cook for Christmas Eve for my in-laws but they decided that we will get together on the Friday before. I just realized I need to get the Turkey now. I feel so crazy right now. I don't even have shopping done yet for the kids. I have to have everything done by the 20th too since my son is having surgery on his toes this day and I don't know how he will be after. Such a crazy time of year.

 

[kittylady1972]

Sounds like you guys had a great trip despite the cold.

I am right there with you about Christmas. I can't believe either that Christmas is less then 2 weeks away now. I cook for Christmas Eve for my in-laws but they decided that we will get together on the Friday before. I just realized I need to get the Turkey now. I feel so crazy right now. I don't even have shopping done yet for the kids. I have to have everything done by the 20th too since my son is having surgery on his toes this day and I don't know how he will be after. Such a crazy time of year.

Yes it was good...after all it WAS Disney!

Nice that you'll be able to get together a little earlier than Christmas Eve. I haven't finished shopping either but I guess there is always next week.

We usually cook for Christmas Eve (dinner) and Christmas Day brunch and dinner. This year we're just doing Christmas Eve dinner (for about 13 people) and then Christmas Day dinner (for 10 people) only. That's a little easier I guess and will give us some time to just enjoy Christmas morning. Plus we plan to have a New Year's Eve party as well. Yes I am well aware that are crazy.

 

[piglet1979]

I am just as crazy. We have a New years day party to cook for. I love this time of year once I have the shopping done.

 

[KathyM2]

Looks like a great but whirlwind trip for you as always!! Congrats on being done with radiation.

 

[kittylady1972]

Some photos of my Disney Ornament Tree. This tree contains ONLY my Disney Character Ornaments...mostly the ones from when I used to get the ornament of the month from them. I've purchased a few others over the years also. There are many other Disney ornaments on our main tree though:



So I did manage to get both trees up last week and got the house decorated before our party Saturday evening. Plus I had gifts purchased for some friends at the party AND to participate in the white elephant gift exchange we have every year. I managed to get a few food items prepared for Saturday...and then we just bought some fried chicken. It all worked out and we had a good time and think everybody had fun that attended. We even had an ugly sweater contest where I gave out prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.

Sunday was about tennis and football. I played 3 hours of tennis and then watched at least 4+ hours of football afterwards.

I'm still woefully behind on Christmas shopping with this week left to go and I have yet to get Christmas cards done either. That's on my list for this week though! The weekend will be another crazy busy one, so really I have about 4 more days to get most of the rest of my stuff done. I can do this!

So updates will most likely have to wait until after the holiday is over unfortunately!

 

[kittylady1972]

I'm still here...and feeling much better about my holiday shopping now.

I've purchased all of the "big" gifts for everybody. One gift may not arrive until after Christmas but it is what it is and it's for my DH anyway.

I have many items ordered and on their way either to my house or various stores for pick-up.

My holiday cards are printed...but then I realized that my computer got wiped (by me) in the spring and so I no longer have the program I need to pull up my address list. I may have to bit the bullet and buy Microsoft Office I guess.

So instead of doing cards as planned last night, I wrapped a ton of gifts. I've made a good dent in things. I have some smaller items and stocking stuffers to get at this point but that's it. I can breathe a bit.

Oh and I need to come up with something for my dad and maybe DH as well. I have a few more days for that I guess.

*******

In Disney news, even though money is very tight right now, and I just had to spend $1500 on car repairs AND I owe another $800+ for the rental car damage from our October trip...I still think I need to seriously consider upgrading our APs, that expire TOMORROW, since it's only about $500 to do so...but that means $2500 for all of us but still probably cheaper than tickets will cost us for next year. Oh yeah...I've booked our rooms for November (Thanksgiving week) next year. Plus we had to move Hawaii to August due to availability of one of the other timeshare rooms we are staying in with friends, so now I will have to try again to book (or most likely waitlist) our room at Aulani for next AUGUST!

********

Hope everybody else is enjoying this festive time of year and is way more prepared than myself!

 

[kittylady1972]

Christmas is so close now and I *THINK* I have all that I need. Even with two less people to buy for this year (my mom and my MIL ) I still didn't have an easy time finding stuff for others. Kids are older and it's more difficult to buy for them now. I think I did okay though. Just about everything is wrapped. Today we'll go shopping at a local Italian bakery for desserts for this weekend, tomorrow we'll go to lunch and to a seafood market where we buy at least SEVEN kinds of seafood for the feast of the seven fishes meal Christmas Eve, and in our frig at home is a large rib roast that we'll marinate for Christmas Day dinner.

*************

In Disney news, I read that I have at least until January 8th to order my annual passes. DH asked about renewing them and we both agreed we DO need to do that because $470+tax for a Platinum Plus AP really can't be beat. I'm even half considering a trip for Easter next year, even though I know that would be insane.

I really am hoping that next week I can start my trip report from December.

This was so much fun to see though:


Even though I still miss the Osbourne Lights.

And this was by far my favorite torture photo for my family:

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Love the pic!!!! Have a Merry Christmas!

 

[kittylady1972]

Happy Day After Christmas to everybody!

We had an extremely fun but busy weekend at home. Friday afternoon was our visit into the city of Baltimore to an Italian bakery to pick up some desserts for Christmas Eve...so many good desserts! Saturday we started off with an early lunch and then a visit to the seafood market to get our seven different kinds of seafood for our traditional feast of the seven fishes Christmas Eve dinner. We had people over Saturday afternoon for the 4:30pm RAVENS game, which was a bit stressful. I can't even recall what we did after that!

Sunday morning I was up and hit the mall for a walk and picked up some last minute shopping items, mostly food but one gift that we found for my nephew and had to buy him. Then it was home and by 12pm or so we started cooking and preparing food for dinner that evening as we hosted SIXTEEN people at our house for a sitdown Christmas Eve Seafood feast. It turned out fantastic and we STILL had leftover food after we were done, especially desserts! Once the house was vacated, we did our usual Christmas Eve gift opening, which is always new pjs from me to the kids, but this year we bought PJs for DH and myself that my daughter wrapped. Then we read Twas the Night Before Christmas out loud before heading to bed!

Yesterday we were up pretty early and ready to start our day. We opened all of our gifts to/from each other and Santa and then made a quick breakfast of cinnamon rolls. After that we mostly got things setup for dinner later, which was a prime rib roast, actually two of them, for 10 of us. My dad arrived in the early afternoon and we did our gift exchange with him and played some of the new Christmas games.

My husband's family arrived around 2:30pm and we did gift exchange with them. So apparently my sister-in-law's future husband (#3) has some kind of tradition with his family where they play tricks on family members for the Christmas gifts for fun. What he doesn't seem to realize is that he doesn't really know my kids, and I have one who is not fond of that kind of stuff. In any event, my sister-in-law handed all 3 kids these paper mailboxes that were sealed for them to open. The first trick I guess was that they were supposed to be really sealed shut, but the kids got them open pretty easily. Inside each kid had about 20+ gift cards, of which only TWO of them had any value. So they had to spend the rest of their time logging into websites with gift card codes to determine the "actual" valid gift card. I don't know...I didn't find it very funny. As it turns out, I think each kid had an active $25 Walmart Giftcard and they also each had active $20 or $25 I-Tunes gift cards and my sister-in-law is well aware that our family owns ZERO Apple products and in fact we are pretty vocal about the fact that we never have and never will have any Apple products in our house. At one point I heard the future husband tell my nephew 'well your cousins each have itunes gift cards they won't be using perhaps you can see if they can give them to you" or something like that, to which my SIL actually told him absolutely NOT to do that, but still...what the heck was the point? I was more livid when I *THOUGHT* that the only thing they did give them were the iTunes giftcards, but then the kids told me that they also had valid Walmart cards...okay. Oh and a Jack-in-the-Box card for each of them...which of course is only on the West Coast and we don't live there. My SIL I should mention moved to California with her boyfriend/now fiancee/future husband #3 last OCTOBER and seems to be under the illusion that we have some plans to visit them out there. Not happening on my watch or my dime. They are getting married in February and I honestly think she expected me to fly all 5 of us out for the wedding for the weekend...um NO. My DH is doing, but only so his dad doesn't have to fly out or go alone, and his dad is paying for his ticket. There is no way we are paying for the rest of us to fly out for her THIRD wedding for a long weekend from Maryland to California. I've been to California THREE times in my lifetime, the last time was 2013 when we did a big family trip to California with the kids to visit various California sites (including Disneyland) but that was a one and done trip. We have no desire to return there but I get the feeling my SIL and her future husband think we have plans to visit them in the future. They really need to get over that.

So that was the small bit of holiday drama, which is pretty good considering I'm not that fond of SIL or her future husband if you didn't catch that already. I managed to avoid them most of the time they were around and tolerate them when I had to be around them, which is the best I could do. I also even managed to get through sitting through dinner with my dad and his GIRLFRIEND having dinner at my house on Christmas Eve (yes I invited them) and my dad leaving that night to spend Christmas Eve with his girlfriend instead of his family on this our very FIRST Christmas without my mother who passed away last February. Also first Christmas without my MIL, but my FIL currently isn't dating anybody. So the fact that we all got through the holidays and had good ones despite our missing loved ones was pretty good for us.

Now my dad did spend yesterday and last night with us, but today he returns back to his girlfriend's house where he'll be until after the New Year. My brother and family plan to come up this weekend and stay with us, so we are making plans to all get together again at least once while we are all in the same state. Then we plan to host a big New Year's Eve party at our house this year for friends and family to kick 2017 to the curb for good!

Hope everybody else had a wonderful Christmas and will have a great New Year as well!

 

[kittylady1972]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sorry I've been a bit scarce, but it's really been non-stop at my house since after Christmas and I'm finally getting back into a routine again...just in time for this today:



As you can see, my kids were thrilled to have their very first snow day today. There actually isn't much snow at all, but the extreme cold here in Maryland (and most of the East Coast) was enough combined with snow to give them the day off. This was taken as I backed out of our driveway to go to work and they had finished shoveling the driveway.

So the New Year was just okay. I was hoping for a bigger blowout to kick 2017 to the curb, but it just didn't happen. The Baltimore Ravens ended up losing their football game at the last minute....that's SO RAVENS...and then as we retreated from our basement to upstairs to finish off the New Year it was just crazy. I do LOVE a house full of people though, but it does make it more difficult to connect with everybody.

We had some good friends spend the night, and we already had my brother and family and their puppy in the house so it was quite a busy weekend. We did manage to put together a great New Year's Day dinner though...and we all enjoyed it:


Oh and on Saturday we ended up heading close to the Washington, DC area to see ICE! at the Gaylord National Hotel for the very first time. That was a very cool/COLD experience but fun. It was NINE degree inside the tent full of ice sculptures...so when we walked out about 20-30 minutes later into temps in the 20s it felt downright BALMY!



We met my dad, his girlfriend and one of my aunts for lunch afterwards which was nice. We spent the rest of the weekend inside because...BRRRR!

My brother and family went home on Tuesday, so I've been trying to get the house back into some kind of order ever since. Two kids ages 3 and 5 and a puppy can cause a lot of extra stuff to be everywhere! I'm still so glad they came and stayed as long as they did...and I do miss them already.

So that's been my week, back to work and trying to get back into a routine!

***********************

IN DISNEY NEWS: Yesterday was the last day to buy the DVC Annual Passes at the discounted rate...and I just couldn't see NOT spending the money for them even if I have no idea how I'll pay this bill when it arrives. I was on hold with DVC for 45 minutes or longer last night just to try to get the purchase completed, since I qualified for a renewal rate which was cheaper than a new purchase. So for just about $500 each, we now all have PLATINUM PLUS ANNUAL PASSES...which means I'll find some way to make a few trips to Disney this year for sure, if only to take advantage of the waterparks a few times. I'm even half considering a trip during EASTER week, to mostly do waterparks because I know the parks would be insane at that time. We'll see. I still have TWO Dine with an Imagineer lunches booked for my son and I to share and need to decide if we keep the April or the June one for that.

One of these days I'll return to real Disney Trip Report updates here...I promise!

 

[piglet1979]

My kids are off today and tomorrow because of the cold temps. We started today at -3 wind chill and it will continue to fall all day. We are now at -11 wind chill and by morning we will be at -20--25. I know our district is having trouble with the buses because of the cold weather. We missed the snow that the East coast is getting. We are just outside of the front. My kids are so excited. They went back to school from break yesterday and then off the rest of the week and the next 2 weeks are just 4 day weeks.