Quick Note - Holiday Spirit

Last night I went to Hollywood Studios with my roommate to preview the new Pirates attraction and see the Osborne family spectacle of dancing lights on the streets of America. This is my first time at Disney during the holidays and the first time I've seen the lights. What an incredible set-up! They even have fake snow drifting down. I tried to take photos but pictures wouldn't do it justice. You ate absolutely and completely immersed in a wonderland of Chrismas lights that 'dance' along with the music. Every detail is incredible, from the huge tree centerpiece, to the angels suspended overhead, to the bicycle along the street wrapped in lights that pulsated to he music. Every building was completely covered in lights, you couldn't even tell what color the walls were. Definitely a must see at Disney during the holiday season.

We capped off the night sharing a big bag of carmel corn and watching Fantasmic. Getting ready to bake some deliciousness for our Thanksgiving potluck. The interns were assigned 'dessert' which is my specialty! Any suggestions? I'm thinking mini pumpkin cheesecake bites, that way they'll be easy to share with a large group of people.

Trip to LA part 1

A couple weeks ago I made a trip back out to the West Coast. What a whirlwind tip it was! After getting trough security at the airport I went to board the tram to the terminal and noticed there were a lot of security guards around and that one of the trams was roped off and being held at the station. I asked one of them what was up and he whispered to me that the President was arriving! I never did see hom but he must have been somewhere in the airport because the terminal was buzzing with activity, there was an extra security check before getting on the plane, and takeoff was delayed 30min. I took a direct flight from MCO to LAX on Delta and the experience was quite enjoyable. I slept a little and read some Game of Thrones, although I forgot to charge up my Kindle so it died about 2hrs into the flight. Direct flights are the way to go if you have to fly cross country and I was really satisfied with the service on Delta. The even had free movie trailers and TV to watch on the seat backs. You could also purchase movies and HBO TV shows to watch on demand. I thought seriously about purchasing an episode of Game of Thrones for $2 after my Kindle died but didn't want to watch it withou DJ. We arrived a little late because of the delay taking off and I grabbed a shuttle to the car rental lot. I picked out a cute white little Ford Fiesta for the weekend. It was a great car and got good gas mileage but didn't have the power of my SI. I drove the hour to DJ's house and fell asleep shortly after arrival.

Saturday we slept in and then DJ made us breakfast egg sandwiches with turkey and I made mimosas :) We watched football while we got ready for the day and then started the journey to the Coliseum in downtown LA. There was quite a bit of traffic and it ended up taking us about an hour and a half to get there and another 20min to find parking. We found the tailgate lot and met up with my family. It was SO good to see my family. It can be tough being out here in Florida on my own and football season is always a special time for us when we get together for Duck games. I tried to catch everyone up but there was so much to share and so little time. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas. We ended up scalping tickets at the last minute am I'm glad we did. What a game and an incredible experience! We were in the middle of a USC section but everyone was very respectful.

After the big win we started the journey home with the intention of getting dinner once we got back. But the East Coast time zone caught up to me and I was out the second I laid down and slept like a rock through the night. More stories to come about the rest of my trip. Hope you enjoy these few photos from the first day.