Category Archives: Disney at Home

Disneyland Souvenirs – What Did We Buy?

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We can’t help ourselves.  One of us has a Disney Christmas ornament addiction and the other one is extra sentimental.  Makes us great news for the shops in Disney parks!  Our September Disneyland vacation was no exception to our well-established Disney shopping ways.  What was a bit different was that we actually had a plan and a shopping list and managed to stick to it without going overboard!  Yay us!

Disneyland Souvenirs – What Did We Buy?

Since it was our first visit to Disneyland and we only had three days, we decided to scout out the items on our list before making any purchases.  This turned out to be both a brilliant and terrible idea at the same time.  It was great to get the lay of the land and see what the various shops had to offer, but we almost missed out on one of the items on the list by waiting too long.  The Sally costume we wanted for our granddaughter was suddenly nearly impossible to find on the last day, but Raymond finally spotted one.  Crisis averted.

What was on the list?  A souvenir for our son-in-law, Grant, some more Christmas ornaments (’cause we can never have too many), the costume and a traditional, embroidered EarHat for Violet, and some special something to commemorate this trip to celebrate our 29th anniversary.  What about Megan and Joseph, you ask?  We’d already purchased their souvenirs on the West Coast Disney cruise we took before visiting Disneyland.  Megan got a Disney Cruise Line spirit jersey in a beautiful watermelon color and Joseph got a tee shirt from a fantastic brewery we visited in Astoria, Oregon.

Grant’s souvenir was so easy, we spotted it on the very first day.  Who wouldn’t love a Thanos Infinity Gauntlet Mug from the gift shop at Guardians of the Galaxy:  Mission Breakout?  We made a note to pick it up on the last day and moved on down the list.  We spotted that Sally costume early on too, but made no such helpful note.

Moving on.  The ornaments were plentiful and we found them in many locations.  Choosing just a few was way more difficult than I’d imagined.  I’m a pretty decisive person, but there were so many great one’s I didn’t have!  I mulled over my choices in several stores so I’d be ready when the time came.  See?  Mrs. Potts and Chip, Mushu and Cri-kee, Jack and Sally, and Mickey and Minnie were my final selections.

On the last day, as we made our purchases, we still needed one special something for ourselves.  Raymond and I have always loved Carl and Ellie from Up, so while I was busily debating the merits of one ornament over another and making my final choices, Raymond was looking at sketches being drawn by an artist right there in the store.  There were Carl and Ellie!  A very helpful Cast Member explained the custom framing options and we knew we’d found exactly what we were looking for.

We left our packages to be shipped home and ordered our sketch with a Grape Soda pin and our wedding date added at the bottom.  When we got home, waiting for our souvenirs did quite a bit to soften our post-Disney depression.  The anxiously awaited packages finally arrived and we were so pleased with how the framed sketch turned out.  Absolutely, it’s one of our favorite Disney purchases ever!

What’s your most favorite Disney purchase? 

Merry Christmas, Disney Friends!

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“I don’t deserve to be so happy.  But I can’t help it.  I-I I just can’t help it”. – Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol, 1951, Alastair Sim)

I don’t know when a year has flown by so quickly.  We just wished everyone Happy New Year and here we are; it’s already Christmas morning.  Maybe it’s just me, but I’m going to try my best starting right now, to slow time down so I can enjoy every second of this day.

Merry Christmas, Disney Friends!

Our family loves Christmas traditions.  For us that means a Christmas Eve bonfire and fireworks followed by Christmas morning Mimosas and leisurely gift opening with lots of laughter.  I’ve set myself up for enjoying each moment by planning to not spend all day in the kitchen! I made a giant pan of lasagna ahead of time.  I’ll just pop that baby in the oven and hang out with my favorite people in the world until it’s time to eat.  Whatever you’ve got planned, I hope it’s just as relaxing and fun.

Since it wouldn’t be Christmas at our house without Disney gifts, I want to show you what I found for our granddaughter!  She’s still a bit young for this, but I couldn’t resist and she’s growing so fast.  It won’t be long before we’re having 3 o’clock parades together!  (I hope you got all the Disney gifts on your list!)

Disney friends, I appreciate you more every year.  On social media, I’ve enjoyed your Disney vacation pictures, Disney thoughts and opinions, trip reports, restaurant and food reviews, lively discussions and, most of all, sharing your joy and common love of family and Disney.  Your children are precious and I love your pride in their accomplishments.  Your pets are adorable and some of you are as crazy about your furry friends as I am about Junior and Ricky.  I am grateful for your friendship every single day…I don’t tell you as often as I should.

From our family to yours, we wish you the happiest of Christmases and hope the peace and joy of this most special holiday are with you today and always.

Merry Christmas…Lisa

 

Update! Living a BUSY Disney Life

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Where have I been?  What have I been doing?  Why don’t I write posts regularly?  Have I run out of Disney things to say? Great questions, all of them.  Allow me to explain…

Update!  Living a BUSY Disney Life

Of course, I still love Disney and still have plenty to say!  So much great stuff is happening right now, I have let this blog (and you beloved, faithful readers) fall by the wayside.  It’s not personal, you still mean the world to me.  A number of factors have distracted me and I fully expect to be back to my usual post-writing self in the very near future.  We’ve got three Disney trips in the works and I couldn’t be more excited!

I have a day job (that I love).  I’ve been with the same company for 16 years and have enjoyed many interesting, challenging, and rewarding opportunities.  Recently though, the career that’s been fairly easy to balance with my non-working hours has required a bit more attention.  I used to spend many a lunch hour working on blog posts and that has not been possible lately.  Everything’s great and I expect this crazy-busy time to even out a bit in a couple of months.

Preparing for Megan and Grant’s new arrival!  I had no idea that becoming a grandma would be this exciting!  About a month-and-a-half ago, Raymond and I became grandparents for the first time.  We loved helping to set up the nursery, which is lovely (with quite of few Disney touches).  And are so fortunate to have Megan, Grant, and their darling baby girl living nearby.  Our granddaughter, while not ready to make her public debut on the internet, is as sweet, precious, healthy, and adorable as can be.

I’ve embraced my inner farm girl!  Hello, heirloom tomatoes and squashes galore.  I made Eggplant Parmesan with eggplants straight from the vine (plant? shrub? you get what I mean) and homemade tomato sauce!  Also, those baby chicks that arrived while we were at Walt Disney World in May (Thanks again, Tyler) are growing like crazy and have been integrated into the existing (perhaps I should say “remaining”) flock of five.  Chickens…simple and difficult at the same time.  A sucker for Tractor Supply ads, I also picked up some teeny tiny baby chicks on a recent Saturday during “Chick Days” which added six more females – three Cinnamon Queens and three Sapphire Gems.  Yup, that’s 16 chickens of various ages and breeds.  Here’s hoping my track record improves for their sakes.  The May hatchlings are named Scotch, Soda, Bubbles, Moe, and Bart Jr.  The newest six will get names as soon as I can tell them apart.

We Said Farewell to The Disney Exchange – After 190 episodes, Nick, Dave and I decided it was time to end the show and our last episode was released a few weeks ago.  We’re still very good friends and we still love every one of our listeners and the friends we made from doing the podcast.  I had no idea when we started we’d get 3 1/2 years of weekly recordings simply from talking to each other about Disney.  I had such a fun time and if you’ve listened to even a single episode, you’d be able to tell.

Finally, I’d like to add that for the past several months, I’ve been working out extra hard and trying to eat in a way more focused on macros than calories.  I’ve fully embraced protein shakes as a breakfast food and have added much more weight training to my routine.  I’m pleased with the results so far and am running and bicycling better than I have in a couple of years.  After an MRI in 2016 revealed some arthritis and two bulging disks in my neck, I convinced myself that too much strength training would cause a nerve pain flare-up.  I was totally wrong!  My neck feels better than it has in a very long time.  We have lots of running and cycling events planned for this fall and winter and I cannot wait!

Still here?  Thanks for reading and if you’ve been here before, thanks for following along with Living a Disney Life.  I’ve been scarce lately, but I’ve still got lots of plans for this little blog.  Please consider follow along over on Facebook and Twitter too.  Be back to my regular posts soon, I promise…Lisa

 

Home is Where You Hang Your Ear Hat

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Disney friends, you will totally get this post.  The pull of Disney is strong!  While we’re pining for our next vacation, we often find the need to surround ourselves with a bit of Disney happiness.  These touches of Disney soothe us while we’re saving, planning, and waiting (oh, the waiting!) for that return to our favorite Disney destination.  There’s nothing to be ashamed of!  We all know that…

Home is Where You Hang Your Ear Hat

Some of us go full-on Disney décor.  Personally, I find a well placed Disney souvenir or collectible to be enough to bring back a happy memory and remind me that we’ll be back to making more memories in the Disney Bubble in the future.  When that post-Disney depression comes on strong, I take a minute to look around my house and that’s all I need to cheer me up. (Henry Jones, Jr. is always available to chase those blues away!)

Marry Poppins is in the foyer.

The poster from 2014’s Food & Wine Festival (in the living room) reminds us of our 25th anniversary trip.

Some of our favorite characters hang out in the kitchen.

Mickey keeps an eye on who’s coming and going from the top of the stairs.

Planning materials are always handy in the library (and Bay Lake Tower is there too).  Along with our overstuffed curio of Disney treasures.

Recently I changed up the contents of the built-in shelves in our living room.  They’d been full of family pictures forever.  Missing Joseph, I decided to turn those shelves into a collection of things we love and I’m super happy with the results.  More than just Disney, each shelf tells a little story.  Cardinal baseball and chicken love are also on display. (Pigasus is my spirit animal.)  It’s mostly Disney though for all the usual reasons I’ve detailed here over the years and now because Walt Disney World is where Joseph is…for another three weeks, anyway.  (I sure do miss that kid!)

I’ve got an idea.  Why don’t you snap a picture or two of your favorite Disney-at-home decorations and share them over on the Facebook page.  I’d love to see them!