JP2MK: It's been a while...let's get festive!

Well we're nearly at Christmas and in the midst of it all I realise that I haven't wrote a blog piece since the beginning of November...how has that happened?

Well, it is a busy time of year and my priorities have been elsewhere...busy at work...busy at home and busy with co-hosting the Disney Dream Girls Podcast.

So I sit here typing as I paint my nails all red and glittery ready for the festive season...truly multi-tasking!!

A couple of weeks ago I took on what seems to have become my traditional role of Christmas Elf as I helped out Santa in his Grotto at my pre-school's Christmas Fair; thought you might like to see a picture!!

We had a great day and raised just over £1000 for the pre-school which was absolutely fantastic!

Sitting here I got to thinking about how I combine my love of Disney with my love of Christmas...

We were lucky enough to visit Walt Disney World way back in 2004 during late November into early December and so got to see the world dressed for the holidays. We even got to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party on my birthday which was amazing. It is definitely a time of year I would recommend to visit; not only is the temperature a little cooler (but still nice and warm) but you get all the Christmas theming and by going early December the crowd levels are very low meaning that queues are simply not an issue. But I think it will be a fair few years before we get the chance to visit at Christmas again as working in education means that taking vacation at this time of year is simply not possible, never mind the issue of taking the kids out of school during term time!

Downtown Disney, 2004

Although it is on my 'must-do' list to visit WDW at Christmas and actually spend Christmas Day out there...in fact we have even speculated on what we would do and which resort we would stay at...ah well I can dream!

If I go back even further in time we were lucky enough to visit Disneyland Paris a number of times during the Christmas season....although it was somewhat colder than Florida!! But the temperature did kind of add to the atmosphere!

Disneyland Paris - 2000

We were even there one year just before my eldest's birthday and celebrated with a character tea party which consisted of cake, cake and yet more cake!!

Cake (or should that be gateaux?!) anyone?

Birthday pressie that was waiting for Ethan in our room :)

Birthday button!

At home I devote one of our three Christmas trees to all Disney decorations; decorations that have been collected over the years dating back to the early 1990's. Simon bought some of our first Disney decorations on business trips to LA and San Francisco, we've then collected more during our various visits to parks over the years plus purchases from the Disney Store.