I've Got The Blues

There's no denying it; I've got the post Walt Disney World trip blues!

We've been back a little over a week and I'm still adjusting back to the "real" world after another magical Disney trip.  It's always a bit of a let down.  The cold Maine weather certainly isn't helping things!  I'm getting back into a normal sleeping pattern after that crazy race schedule.  Things are settling down.  But I'm looking forward to our next trip! I've decided that the best cure for what ails me is to keep the Disney magic alive!

The first Disney thing I did upon our return was to eat the Minnie Mouse candy apple we bought on our last day.  I've brought home an apple a few times now, and I think it's something I'm going to continue to do.  It's nice to have a little piece of Disney World magic to enjoy at home!  Plus, they're delicious!!!

I've been learning a lot at my new chiropractic job.  I have training this weekend and I'm excited to learn more!  I think I'll feel more confident once I learn more terminology. Walt Disney loved to move forward, pave new paths and to learn new things.  I'm definitely stepping out of my design oriented comfort zone, but I'm enjoying it!

Speaking of jobs, my travel agent job is going really well too!  With all of the excitement for our trip I haven't had a chance to make the big announcement: I am excited to announce that Key to the World Travel is now An Authorized Disney Vacation Planner! We were given this special designation by Disney Destinations as a result of our ongoing commitment to planning customized, magical trips to Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort and Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa, vacations on board Disney Cruise Line and incredible journeys with Adventures by Disney.  This is so exciting for our company and I'm really looking forward to what's in store for us in 2015!

When I haven't been working, I've been going to the craft stores to get supplies for Happily Ever Hatter.  (I've had to get supplies for current orders and new designs.)  If there's anything I can count on, it's that I'm going to come back from Walt Disney World with more design ideas.  I sense a lot of design work in my future!

One perk of going to all of the craft stores is that I can also check out the Disney stuff. We've had a few finds over the past few days!  I found a Disney Guess Who Game on sale at ACMoore.  It was on sale for $4.99 (from $6.99).  Then, we had a coupon and we got it for another 20% off!  Woo!!!  

The other night, I found a Thomas Kinkade Disney Calendar while Eliot was at Staples printing something for his Etsy business- Snowblade Creations.  I've been looking for the perfect 2015 calendar and I finally found one!

My favorite find was the Disney Holiday Scrapbook Paper Stacks I found at JoAnn Fabric and Crafts.  I'd heard about these paper stacks though my Disney Scrapbook group on Facebook but I haven't been able to find them.  Our store finally got their shipment!  I found them this week and luckily all scrapbook papers are currently 40% off!  I threw my willpower out the window and completely caved getting the 12" x 12" and 8" x 8" paper stacks.  (My Disney holiday addiction is in a happy place right now.)

Finally, I can't forget the news that's rocking all of New England!  Our beloved Patriots are going to the SuperBowl again!  Yay!  I've always been a huge Pats fan.  I follow football more closely than the Celtics playing basketball or the Red Sox with baseball. The only reason I'm somewhat up on the Bruins is because Eliot's a huge hockey fan. (Even then I know more about his team- the San Jose Sharks.)  The Pats and football are my territory.  I'm pretty excited for the big game in a week!  That'll definitely give me something else to look forward to.

Things are really looking up!  I think I'll be able to rid myself of the post Walt Disney World trip blues.  All it takes is a little bit of faith, trust and pixie dust!!!  °o°

New Year's Eve Celebrations

I'm really on a roll with these blog posts!  (One every single day since the new year started!)  I've been so busy with all of my other posts that I haven't even had a chance to tell you all about our New Year's Eve celebrations!

Photo Source: Pinterest (Original Pin here.)

This year, Eliot and I didn't have any big New Year's Eve plans.  I've personally been to Walt Disney World for five New Year's Eve celebrations, and also gone to one at Sea World.  I've been incredibly blessed to start 6 new years at my second home.  There is nothing like celebrating a new year at Disney.  Yes, the parks are packed with people and usually reach full capacity mid-morning.  You can't move without someone else being in your personal space.  But the whole experience is still magical to me.  Honestly, everything else just seems kind of "eh" at this point!  I've completely been spoiled by Disney's incredible fireworks displays and holiday celebrations!

My parents came down to visit Eliot and me.  They also brought Nana and Papa and Jeremy drove up from New Hampshire.  (We're about 2 hours from Jeremy and 3.5 hours from Mom and Dad so it's a good location to meet in the middle.)  We decided that we would go out to have dinner and then have a quiet evening at Eliot's and my house. Quiet isn't exactly how it turned out.  But it was pretty perfect.

I wanted to find something silvery to wear for New Year's Eve.  I didn't go all out since we weren't doing much, but I did find a silver shirt and a blue tank top that looked festive.  I found some blue earrings to match.  Then I (quickly) painted my nails to match!

I've been wanting to do a Mickey Manicure for a while now.  I completely ran out of time at Christmas.   After painting each one of my nails some shade of blue, silver, or glitter, I added my Mickey rhinestones!  They're really easy to do.  (My bridesmaids and I all wore them in my wedding as well.)  I just took 2 different sized rhinestones and used nail glue to attach them in Mickey shapes on my nails!  My nails themselves don't look that great. But considering how quickly I painted them, I'm ok with how they turned out!  I'm planning to re-do them for our trip to Disney next week anyways!

Once we were dressed and ready to go, we headed out to dinner with Mom, Dad, Nana and Papa.  (Jeremy was on his way up after work, so he was running a little bit later.) We went to Longhorn Steakhouse, but the wait was 1.5 to 2 hours!  We ended up checking a few places, and Ruby Tuesday had no wait, and a setting for 6 right near to the door! Ruby Tuesday's it was!

Papa and I have a New Year's Eve tradition where I'll order a drink and he'll get the same one as me. I guess he trusts his granddaughter's taste in alcoholic beverages.  Ha ha! We ended up getting strawberry daiquiris this year.  Yum!  Jeremy ended up meeting us toward the end of the meal.   

After dinner, we took Nana and Papa over to their hotel.  The rest of us were staying at our house.  We had thought about playing a few board games while we watched the New Year's Eve footage from New York City.  I assumed that it would be a quiet night.  Ha!

As soon as we got home, Daddy stumbled across Eliot's and my alcohol display.  Ok, maybe stumbled is not the right word.  He searched our supply for rum.  And he found a giant bottle of Captain Morgan that Eliot bought a while ago.  I'd forgotten that we even had it.  The next thing I know, Mom is asking if I have any wine.  So it was going to be one of those kinda nights!  Ha ha!

(Before I go any further, I want to put out a disclaimer that I barely see my parents drink. We're not prudes, nor are we alcoholics.  Everything in moderation right?  Daddy will have rum and coke here and there.  Mom will occasionally have some wine.  Eliot and I are not big drinkers but we do have a collection of rums and vodkas to make mixed drinks.  I have a few bottles of wine.  I can picture my family reading this so I wanted to makes sure that I got that across loud and clear.  However, New Year's Eve is a good time to have a celebration, so why not?  Ok, now back to the story!)

Daddy ended up having quite a bit of rum.  He wasn't drunk, but he was quite happy the remainder of the evening.  I haven't laughed so hard in I don't even know how long.  It got to the point where I had to start writing a few of the things he said down on my cell phone because they were too funny to forget.  (My personal favorite was that he didn't know who Ryan Seacrest was.  Dad kept calling him Brian Seaquest instead.)

We had Eeyore sitting on the couch and Daddy decided to take Eeyore and pretend that he was drinking some rum and coke.  Then Jeremy told Eeyore that he had to go to jail because he was too young to drink.  So he put him in the corner under our Eiffel Tower light.  Somewhere in the middle of it, Duffy got ahold of a miniature bottle of Jack Daniel's and tried to "run" off with it.  I was laughing so hard.

After watching the New York television coverage for a bit, we decided to break out the board games. We ended up selecting my Pirates of the Caribbean Game of Life.  It's basically the Game of Life but with the pirate captains, in ships, with pieces of 8 trying to make it to Shipwreck City.  (Ok, Disnerd problems: why is it Shipwreck City and not Shipwreck Cove?!?!?  Ok rant over.)

The game was a ton of fun.  Daddy was still hilarious.  You have to "raid" other players so we had a blast picking on each other.  Jeremy and I had the cheap ships so we kept getting attacked.  Daddy couldn't pronounce Sao Fang so he decided he was Sae Five. (Pronounced Say Five.)  I really need to have them re-watch the Pirate movies.  I was the first to make it to Shipwreck City.  There I am in the lead in the black ship.

About halfway through the game, I also discovered that there was a Hidden Mickey directly across from me on the game board.  Upon further inspection, there were 3 hidden Mickey heads on my board game!  I didn't notice those before!

At about 11:45, we all had made it to Shipwreck City and it was time to count our "loot" or money.  My super sneaky husband didn't say anything the entire game.  And he ended up beating us all by at least a few thousand dollars.  Ugh.  But it was a lot of fun.  We really need to play our board games more often!

After that, we grabbed our toasting cups and sat to watch the ball drop!  We toasted the new year and then it was time for bed!  Not a bad way to end 2013 and ring in 2014!  °o°