How Time Flies! My Mind is Still in Disney World….
Oh my goodness! Have I really not posted anything on my blog since Christmas! I am so embarrassed! I apologize for letting my fine website slip through my fingers. Bad Sharon!
So what have I been doing with my time? Well, amongst other normal life stuff, I’ve been having SO much fun putting together a scrapbook of our Christmas Disney World vacation. Yep, my wonderful husband and I decided to leave the December cold of Kentucky behind for a week in Florida. We spent six days at the Walt Disney World Resort! It was fantastic!
As life-long Californians until 3 years ago, Disneyland in Anaheim has been our Disney-go-to destination for decades. I honestly can’t recall when I first visited Disneyland since I was very, very young. I remember numerous trips with my parents and siblings, back when the park didn’t have general entry but still used tickets for the various rides. I grew up less than 2 hours away, in the mountains of California, so went frequently as a youth, teen, and young adult. A few months after my marriage in 1986, Steve and I went to Disneyland (our first trip together), and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel. At the time it was the only resort hotel on Disney property, before the creation of Downtown Disney. For the subsequent nearly 30 years we traveled the roughly 3 hours to Anaheim with our expanding family multiple times. For four years we kept season passes and made the journey 3-4 times each year. In fact, my daughter was proposed to at California Adventures!
In all those years, we only made it to Disney World in Orlando once, when I attended the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Conference there in 2010. It was an incredible experience for our family to explore the “other” Disney resort, but alas we had a few strikes against us. One was the conference itself, which kept me preoccupied and a bit too busy to fully enjoy the parks. Second, it was mid-July so hotter than the surface of the sun! Third, admittedly we were a tad prejudiced by our deep love and familiarity with Disneyland. It was difficult not to compare, and while Disney World has much more to offer, and was planned to allow for space and expansion, we could not fully embrace the uniqueness.
Upon moving to Kentucky in 2013, we knew our visits to Disneyland were over. When we again visited a Disney park (it was never a question of IF but always WHEN), we knew it would be the one in Florida. We made the decision to celebrate the holiday in Disney World right after Thanksgiving. It had been 3 years since last stepping foot into a Disney park, and for self-professing Disney-freaks that is an eternity! When it comes to organizing such a major adventure, a month is rather tight, but one advantage with Disney is that they make planning very easy. The Disney World website has everything one needs. Armed with our “magic bands” and Disney Experience phone apps, off we went for 6 awesome days at Disney World!
Christmas with Mickey Mouse is an incomparable experience. Disneyland during Christmas is lavish and replete with holiday spirit. Disney World is just as incredible only multiplied times four! We truly had the absolute best time of our lives. Once home, I knew I had to revitalize a hobby I had let go over the past few years: Scrapbooking! I dusted off my old image files, updated the My Memories software, organized the 1000+ photos we took, and set down to create a lasting memory of our vacation. It has been a painstaking effort gradually plucked away on for the past two months, and 115 pages later, I am still not done! There are still probably a couple of dozen more needed to finish our final day at Animal Kingdom, which I don’t want to rush through. I’ve printed more than half of the pages already, inserting them into the album purchased for our trip’s memories.
So, yes this has occupied much of my time. I am also happy to report that for the first time in far too many months going on to years, I am feeling healthier both physically and emotionally (more on that in another post), and am beginning to write. I am slow at the process, rusty I suppose you could say, but it feels great to be active again. I am making no promises on new releases as yet. Please bear with me a bit longer!
[…] In between writing historical blogs, I focused on improving my health. In part, this involved initiating the lengthy process required for bariatric surgery. For quite a few months this was a top priority, but finally, on my birthday in October as a matter of fact, I had a gastric sleeve. My present to myself! Everything went very well, and by the end of the year, I was feeling like a brand new, forty pounds lighter person! I felt so marvelous that my husband and I celebrated with a Christmas trip to Disney World in Orlando. How Time Flies! My Mind is Still in Disney World… […]
So glad you are feeling so much better!!! Revitalized!!! I hate not feeling well and being “off”!!!! You guys look so happy and relaxed in the pics!!! Dare I say I read contentment in your post!!!!
I am as I said happy for you, but I’m also so happy for us readers!! We’ve missed you and your books!!! God’s richest abundant continued blessings Sharon!!! ??
I love Disney! I grew up in Northern California but my parents didn’t really care about Disney by the time I came around (3rd kid) so we only made the trip down once, but we did go as a family to Disney World once as well when I was a little older and I loved it! Just happened to be looking at the blog yesterday afternoon and noticed you hadn’t posted since Christmas, I guess I have good timing! Glad to hear you’re slowly getting back into writing, best wishes.
Disney is a fun place to revitalize yourself. I’m glad you’re feeling healthier!!
Thank you so much, my dear friend. Faithful, loving friends like you have kept me inspired. I can’t thank you enough.