Why I Oughta...

There are gingerbread houses and even castles.  But then there's this:  the gingerbread carousel that graced the lobby of Disney's Beach Club and Yacht Club's lobby earlier this year.  You can read the description above and know that this is the 17th year of them doing this and it *is* pretty impressive. And it moves! The kids loved it but, I stood and stared for a while.  It's no Mary Blair artwork, but as far as lobby displays go, this one is pretty incredible.

If you find yourself down by the Seven Seas Lagoon on New Year's Eve, go down to the beach at the Polynesian and plant yourself.  On December 31st, they do a show early at 7 pm, then another show at Midnight.  If you're staying Club Level at the Polynesian, they set up a little seating area with wooden chairs that give you a really great view. These photos don't do the show justice, because they launch what they call 'perimeter fireworks'  so the view isn't just straight ahead, but feels like the entire horizon between the Grand Floridian and the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary.  And during the Midnight show, they also launch fireworks from this middle island in the middle of Seven Seas Lagoon.  Yeah...that one that the ferry boat goes by every time?  That one. The kids didn't make it until Midnight, but Nat and I did.  Here's a look at what we saw from our balcony in the Hawaii building.  We snapped a few photos, but there was no substitute fo

Day 3 of these Very Merry Pins.   First was the Passholder one .  Then was the Lilo and Stitch one .  Today is the Frozen one.  And this is the first one that kinda makes sense with the whole snowflake thing on the front of the cover that opens.  These pins all have 2 pin backs and because of that (and the weight of them because of the hinged front that opens!), we're basically am resigned to having them *just* be on the girls pin boards.  They can't really be worn by them because they're so heavy. The year has started out *very* Disney-heavy (and Disney pins, to be specific), but that's mostly because I'm working to empty out the queue of posts and photos from our last trip.  Unfortunately for those of you who don't care one bit about Disney pins, I have bad news for you:  brace yourself for a few more days.  There's more coming!  And those of you who know us, probably are expecting a few more of these in the next few weeks.  eeek!  The collections are

Yesterday was the Passholder version .  Today is one of the 'normal' versions that the team at Disney World put out during their annual Very Merry Christmas Party.  This one opens just like the Passholder version but features Lilo and Stitch and a 'sandman' that is their version of a snowman.  This one, too, is destined for one of the girls' pin boards in their new rooms.

One of the girls picked up this pin from Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party late last year for their board and if you look closely, you'll see that it is a 'Passholder' version, which is pretty nice.  All of the Very Merry pins have this same 'look' of being openable with that snowflake thing on the front.  We got a few of these, so I'll share them in the next few days.