Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party 2019

On our most recent trip to Walt Disney World, we had quite the adventure with our group of friends! It all began with the Wine & Dine Half Marathon weekend where we ran, park hopped, and ate plenty of delicious food. After the weekend was over, we boarded the Disney Dream for a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas. The magic didn't stop there, though. Once our cruise was complete, we returned to Walt Disney World to attend the very first Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party of the season! Needless to say, the trip was amazing, magical, fun-filled, and the best part - none of us wanted it to end (aka, we didn't all get on each other's nerves)!

I said all of that to say, I'm doing these recaps out of order because...well, Christmas is upon us and with the parties in full swing, I felt like it was appropriate to share this one first!

We were SO excited for the Christmas party and couldn't wait for the evening to begin! It had been years since many of us had been to a party (and a first time for some), so we were ready!

Our game plan was to arrive early, hit up as many rides as possible before the party started, grab a quick bite before the party started, then spend the hours during the party enjoying party things!

Someone was exhausted on the ride over to the party and fell smack asleep on the bus!

After arriving at the party, we were ushered behind the gates on the side of the tree (runDisney fans will remember this as the previous route for the WDW and Princess Half). Instead of being lead outside of the park, we were directed down an alleyway where we were given our first cookie of the party!

I LOVE the toy soldiers! They are my favorite part of the parade!

Of course, there were several merchandise carts there as well.

We got suckered in and each bought a party shirt and a commemorative pin.

New changes for the party this year included:

• Fun ride overlays (Tomorrowland Speedway, Space Mountain, Mad Tea Party, and Monsters Inc to name a few)
• A brand new Fireworks show

Also, I didn't remember such a wide variety of cookie/drink options from the last time I attended the party! (That was at least 4 years ago, so my memory on that might be fuzzy.) It was a nice surprise, though!

As soon as we walked into the castle hub, our first order of business was to take a group picture.

We knew the forecast called for rain most of the evening and we wanted to get a picture before we were all drenched and had to wear ponchos.

We loved seeing the Christmas overlays throughout the park - these two were located near Splash Mountain.

The lines for rides were super short, even though the app said they were between 20-30 minutes. We hardly waited for Small World, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion. In between rides, we also grabbed pizza at Pinocchio's. 

After dinner, and per Brayden's request, we rode the carousel. We were just loading up when the announcement was made that the party officially began! It was fun hearing the Christmas music on the carousel, too!

Our mission from here on out was to see the parade, ride the rides with Christmas overlays, snag as many cookies and hot chocolate as possible, and see the fireworks. The line for the cookie stop with egg nog was CRAZY, so we skipped that one. They were seriously lined up 30 minutes before the party officially began! I know the lines go fast but we definitely did not have time for that.

We may have missed the egg not stop, but we didn't miss the other stops! Another change from previous Christmas parties I attended was the wrapped cookies. I loved this as they were easier to handle and carry around or save to eat later.

The Mad Tea Party was our first stop once the party began. The Christmas overlay of flashing lights were red and green and the music was all Christmas themed.

We decided to be the chicken cup! (aka the teacup that didn't spin a whole lot...) And yes, we squeezed three adults and a child into one!

These fools wanted to spin as fast as possible....so, they all took their own tea cup!

Outside of each cookie/drink stop was a large blow up peppermint to signal guests where to go. This stop even had peppermint cookies (and I was all about that life)!

About 45 minutes before the parade began, we found a spot along the route. We knew the chance of rain for the 10 p.m. parade was super high, and because we didn't want to miss the parade, we decided on the first one. I'm so thankful we did because I heard they had to cancel the 10 p.m. parade and use the rainy day cavalcade instead!

I love how Mickey and Minnie lead this parade and Santa ends it!

Who can forget my favorite toy soldiers? :)

As soon as the parade was over, we made a bee line for the Jingle Cruise. The line had finally died down by this point - it was seriously 120 minutes for a while! We waited maybe 15 minutes in line which wasn't bad compared to the length of the line all evening!

This naughty/nice list always makes me laugh because this is totally something Jason would do! This Jason scratched his name off of the naughty list and added it to the nice list!

Our next order of business was to see the new Minnie's Wonderful Christmas Time Fireworks presentation. We found a great spot on Main Street, too!

Because of the weather, the smoke from the fireworks hung around the castle. Even though it made it hard to see some of the projections, we LOVED the new show, the music, and the fireworks themselves!

Another ride to check off of our list was Space Mountain! We decided ahead of time to be "reindeer" for the on-ride photo.

Since my husband is ALWAYS a goofball, this was his version of a reindeer, and I'm still kinda laughing about it....

I'm not joking when I say that was seriously, hands down the version of Space Mountain I've ever seen! We all LOVED it!

One of the friends in our group said we all had to have red magic bands for the party, so we did!

A ride we never made it to was the Tomorrowland Speedway. I did like the Christmas overlay, though and thought it would be fun to see at night!

Brayden's final request of the evening was to ride Dumbo. While the rest of our party rode Space Mountain again, we headed over to Storybook Circus.

We had the chance to ride Dumbo twice without even getting off of the ride! (That's never happened to us before and it was amazing!) 

While in the Storybook Circus area, we saw another peppermint decal and decided to see what it was all about. To our surprise, it was a snowman pretzel! The best part...it was WARM!

By this point, it was nearing midnight and we decided it was time to head back to our resort...but not before a few pictures first, of course!

Main Street was so beautiful with the snow and the lights! It's one of my favorite places to be!

 

Y'all know me and those toy soldiers - I couldn't leave without taking a picture!

Despite the rain, we all had a blast at the party and wouldn't change a thing! I think we would all unanimously agree that the party was a blast, we seriously had a magical time, and the Christmas overlay to Space Mountain was by far our favorite part....or maybe the all new Minnie's Wonderful Christmas Time Fireworks...that's a tossup!

Until next time...see ya real soon! Have a magical holiday season!

For a video recap of our time at the party, check out the clip above! :)

Vlogidays Weekend Edition #5

Week 5 - how have these weekends flown by so fast already?! There's only two weekends left of the holiday season which makes me immensely sad. It's hard to believe Christmas is almost here. I love all of the prepping and planning for the day, but I don't like once the day is actually over. This is my absolute favorite time of year and it's sad to see it come and go by so fast!

This past weekend, we had the chance to spend a little down time at home which was nice. I did attend a few Christmas parties and we had the chance to run a Santa themed 5K which was a blast. After the race, Brayden and I went over to visit the birds and ducks at the lake front and he had a grand old time! These are the kind of moments I cherish and will remember always!

I hope you have a great rest of your week as we gear up for Christmas! Happy vlogidays! :) Thanks for following along in our journey!

New Year's Weekend 2016

Happy 2016! I know I say it every year, but it's hard to believe that 2015 flew by so fast! I AM excited to say this, though - we are officially in 2016 which is the year we get to meet our little Baby Seal! Yay!

Over the New Years Eve weekend, I spent a lot of time sitting around (per Doctor's orders) and a lot of time hanging out with friends! 

New Years Eve itself wasn't a big hoopla this year. My husband was working nights, so my friend Kim and I decided to do a late Christmas catch-up. We ate dinner at McAlisters, exchanged gifts (she got me a Minnie Mouse onesie!), and we caught a movie. I was home by 10:30 p.m., watched the ball drop in NYC at 11 p.m., then went to sleep. Jason called a few minutes before midnight so we could at least talk to each other while the new year transitioned.

On New Year's Day, I had another late Christmas shindig with a few more friends. It's kind of our tradition now to host our "party" on NYD, so I guess that's what we're going with from now on!

One problem - practically EVERY restaurant in our hometown was closed. Our husbands had the same problem and...well...we ended up at the same restaurant while sitting at different tables. It was quite comical!

Walk-Ons is a newer restaurant here in town. I've eaten there many times in NOLA and Baton Rouge but was excited to finally try our hometown location! I ordered my favorite - Cajundillas (quesadillas stuffed with lots of Cajun favorites) and it was delicious as always!

After dinner, I might have splurged on a McD's strawberry shake. I can't tell you the last time I had one of these!!

We exchanged gifts, then took a few pictures!

After it was all said and done, we ended the night watching many hours worth of videos from a trip we all took together a little over 10 years ago. Oh my gosh...I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

The remainder of the weekend was spent shopping for baby furniture with Jason (more on that later), sleeping, taking down the Christmas décor, and sitting as much as possible.

Oh yes, and apparently our hot water heater decided to leak, but we caught it before any damage was done (whew)! We are now the official proud new owners of a brand spankin new hot water heater! Ah, the life of a homeowner! :)

How was your New Years Eve/Weekend? Did you do anything special to celebrate?

Weekend Snapshot

Happy Monday! I thought it would be fun to share a weekend recap with you guys, because my weekend was pretty eventful!  Are you tired of my Christmas posts yet? Me too (yes, me too). This is my last one, promise! :)

On Friday night, I met up with my friend Kim and we had dinner at McAlisters, exchanged Christmas gifts, then went to the movie theater for “Into the Woods”. I’m a fan of musicals, so I loved the movie! I didn’t know anything about the background or original story before seeing the movie, but I thought it was well cast and very well done! I recognized Cinderella’s prince but couldn’t figure out which movie I’d seen him in…a quick IMDB search revealed that he was also Princess Mia’s prince in Princess Diaries 2!  Too funny!

On Saturday morning, I woke up and was not sure what I wanted to do. My BRF was out of town, it was rainy (and nasty/hot/humid/gross) outside, and my knee was iffy. After much deliberation, I finally decided that I needed to get up and get moving. I arrived at my running group a bit late, but there were others who were running longer distances than I was, so no one minded. Thankfully, my 8 mile run was very uneventful right up until the last mile. My knee began bothering me a bit, so I slowed down my pace and took it easy. I was happy I made it all the way to 7 miles before I felt the pull of my IT Band! Yay! I also ran without any music at all because the forecast called for 100% chance of rain. Guess what? It didn’t rain a single drop while running my 8 miles. Not a single drop. My life.

The Louisiana Half is in 2 weeks with Rock N Roll New Orleans the following weekend. I cannot wait for either of these races and I hope my knee cooperates!

Saturday night, two of my friends and I had our final Christmas party of the year. You have NO clue how hard it was for me to leave my Christmas stuff up that long…I mean, I love Christmas and all, but after it’s over I start getting anxious to return my house to it’s proper order!

Yes, it turned into a pajama party, complete with onesies!

We played the Haunted Mansion version of Life which was oh so cute!! I love the game board and all its pieces!

We ate waaaaay too much food and we exchanged gifts!

Melissa gifted each of us with these beautiful infinity scarves and a gift card to Maurices which just opened here!

I made the framed print for Kenzie because it’s her favorite Disney quote, and Melissa received a few Peter Pan items because it’s her favorite movie!

Kenzie made each of us a Tinkerbell shirt. We are all planning on running the Tinkerbell 2016 Half Marathon and these shirts are great motivation! Melissa is getting married in August of this year, so Tinkerbell is a great goal for everyone to have in planning up to and again after the wedding! Besides, Tinkerbell is Melissa’s favorite Disney character, all of us love Disney, and neither Kenzie or Melissa have been to Disneyland…so it’s a perfect fit! I mean, hello!

Goofballs.

On Sunday after church, I began the process of taking down all of the Christmas decorations. It took 8 hours and I watched/listened to the entire season 4 of Downton Abbey, but I got it done! Now my house is back in order, it’s all tidy and clean, and it feels oh so wonderful! I do love Christmas, but even I get tired of it after a while…yes, I admit it! :)

Well, that was a snapshot of my weekend! How was yours? Anything exciting happen?

To all of those participating in Marathon weekend this coming weekend, I hope you have a wonderful time! I’m sad I can’t be there, too! If it’s your first time experiencing this distance, enjoy the ride…you’ll never have another “first”, so make the most of it! Safe travels and happy running!