Christmas Disney

I love Disney World.
I love Christmas.
When Disney and Christmas collided into one magical moment of merriment over Christmas break...well, it nearly did me in.

On the day after Christmas, which also happened to be the coldest day in the history of the Sunshine State, we bundled ourselves up to make a day of it at Disney.

I know I just talked about Disney a little while back, but it's coming at ya again. Holla.

Check us out. Don't hate on my outfit. I can't tell you how cold it was. I had on a lovely fleece headband/ear warmer, a puffy vest, a flannel shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a tank top, jeans, tights, wools socks, and gloves.

And I was still freezing.

Upon our arrival, I conned all my peeps in to watching the Christmas parade, even though I know they just wanted to go ride Space Mountain...and it was AMAZING.

My dream is to be a dancer in a Disney parade.

That's what I'm asking Santa for next year.

Speaking of Santa, the Santa Clause at Disney is THE REAL Santa, for sure. If you'd have seen him and heard his booming "Ho Ho Ho!" you'd have no doubt. Trust me.

 

Cute Minnie Mouse and her beau, Mickey, were out and about, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

Many Mini Minnie's.

 

 Yikes.

After the parade, we hit the Magic Kingdom hard. We rode all of the rides...Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, It's a Small World....you name it.

Except the Tea Cups. If my man Dave gets on the Tea Cups, it is not pretty.

David and his family rode all of the roller coasters....Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Barnstormer...

I took pictures and snuck off to watch musical shows with all the 5 year old girls while they rode the roller coasters.

Me no likey the coaster.

I'm a chicken.

A scaredy cat.

A cry baby.

...But words will never hurt me.

David on the other hand, loves a good coaster, as you can tell from these other pictures that Sarah (David's sister) snapped with her mo-bile device.

(Thunder Mountain Railroad)*

Dave puts his hands up...

(Space Mountain)*

...Miley Cyrus style.

**Photos courtesy of Sarah Dark and those Disney cameras that take pictures of you on the ride when you are scared, used without permission**

When the sun went down, the temperature dropped to a nearly unbearable low, but all the beautiful Disney Twinkle Lights came on.  YAY! So pretty.

Christmas Lights!

Christmas Parades!

Christmas Fireworks Shows!

Christmas Musicals!

I die.

This whole Christmas season, but particularly on this Disney trip, has been an experiment in photography for me.

Aperture!

Depth of Field!

Shutter speed!

Bokeh!

Sorry, I feel like I'm yelling at you today. I'm overly excited from re-living the magic. Disney does that to me.

Anyway, as I was saying...The Dis' was a great place for me to try out different settings on my camera and to try and get some good night photos. It's harder than it looks. With everything that was nailed down draped in lights, there was plenty of material to practice on. Besides that, with the rest of my crew waiting in line for two hours to ride Space Mountain, I had plenty of time.

Here's Pete's fire breathing dragon, Elliot, in the Electrical Lights Parade. (Did you watch that movie as a child? David has no idea who or what this is. It's a great movie! Sometimes I say Passamaquoddy and he looks at me like I'm crazy. "I'm not crazy, Dave. This dragon in the parade proves it. It's a real thing!")

The castle covered in icicle-y lights.

 Magical.

 

And finally, as if all of the aforementioned Disney magical-ness was not enough, at various points during the night, it started snowing on Main Street.

SNOWING!! Real snow!

 

America! Dreams! Hope! Tomorrow! White Christmas!

I saw children asking their dads if it was really snowing and the dads looking around like, "I have no idea."

I overheard one dad turn to a Disney employee and say, "Is this really happening?" and the Disney worker said casually, without missing a beat, "There's always snow at Christmas in Florida."

Then I cried. The magic is always too much for me.

Cry Baby Mel