Kristmas in Kidani - the PTR

[Madonna3]

I am a long, long, long time lurker. First time poster here, kinda. I've posted over on the DVC boards looking for points and I posted in the camping section, but I'd like to become a more active member of this community, so here I am.

Intro:
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I am Maria. I live full-time in Florida and I work full-time in the mental health field I'm married to a great guy and we have a 13 year old son with an attitude. My mother lives with us due to increasing age and declining health and mental abilities. I've been a Disney addict since the age of 4 when my parents brought me to the Magic Kingdom for my birthday. At 13, I convinced them to return on a family vacation and at 15 I marched on Main Street, USA a day before my 16th birthday. Funny how things come full circle. Well, I was determined to live in Florida (I'm from NJ) to be near Mickey, so I went to school here, got my undergrad at USF and graduated with a Master's from Florida Gulf Coast and settled in here in SW Florida.

My mother is Charlotte. She is originally from NJ and has lived there all her life until it became time that she could no longer live on her own. She strayed away from Disney for a long time because my father passed 30 days after he returned from a Disney family vacation in 2007. She had a hard time with the memories, but now she makes me take her whenever I go and is really excited about our upcoming Xmas trip.

Jason is my husband and is originally from Quebec, Canada and yes, he speaks French. He is finishing his degree in Architecture. We met on Facebook before it was cool to do that and he immigrated from Canada to be here with me. He had never been to Disney until I took him there. I, being a suburban girl, I wanted to impress him with the Disney transportation system. It wasn't until I visited him in Montreal that I learned he really wasn't all that impressed with it and now I know why. The buses in Montreal were like a dirtier, hotter version of the Disney buses. So, when I told him we were going to take the bus to Epcot and I was all excited about it and he gave me dirty look - I just get it now. We became DVC members in 2014 and he loves to show off to out of town guests by taking them to the Top of the World lounge.

Michael. What can I say about Michael? He is 13 going on 40. He is super smart, in the 8th grade, a fantastic bowler, and my buddy. We've been taking him to Disney since the age of 5. It was his 5th birthday blow out vacation that my dad had attended 30 days before he passed. My family and I planned this trip for Michael before he was even born. I was forbidden to take him to Disney until he was 5. That meant no Disney for me either! That was torture. I took him to Hollywood Studios when he was 4 because he absolutely had to meet the Power Rangers and he was so cute and I didn't want to miss out on the phase. We dropped a truck load of money on a one day trip to Hollywood Studios and I have no regrets. I cried the entire time because he was so happy. He has been a Disney kid ever since. He LOVES the water parks and every weekend I find myself convinced to pack the family cruiser and head to Disney.
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Next: Our trip

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