Day 1071: Missing Christmas

As the song goes, "I'll be home for Christmas," but as a Disney fan that lives miles and miles away from home, I don't really feel that way at all.

To be fair, I've never actually celebrated Christmas itself at Disney World (or Disneyland for that matter). We have responsibilities here at home. Plus, who in the world would want to go now when I can go in a few weeks when it's much less busy. I have, however, celebrated many Christmas seasons at Walt Disney World, usually around Thanksgiving. In fact, a large chunk of my trips have been during the holiday season, to the point where I take in the holiday traditions as just a regular part of my year.

When I'm far away, on the other hand, things get a little tricky.

There's a Garden of Lights in my area that pretty much everyone gets to during the Holiday season, and I'm always asked about going. I usually turn everyone down though, citing the fact that "it's no Osborne Lights," but truthfully, I think the real reason I turn everyone down is because it only makes me miss home more. And now, with the lights leaving for good after this holiday season, I can't help but wish a bit more than I was home this Christmas.

But that's not all. We can't forget the decorations around the Walt Disney World Resort, or the Gingerbread Singles that are sold at the Grand Floridian (pretty much the only thing I want for Christmas this year). There's the dream lights on the castle, and Holidays around the world at Epcot, plus the holiday tag on IllumiNations that's pretty much my favorite thing during the holiday season.

And yes, I can make my own Gingerbread and put up my own decorations, time my own Christmas lights to "Christmas is Starting Now" or watch the Holiday IllumiNations online, but none of it is quite the same as experiencing it for myself. It's honestly one of the many reasons that I don't have a problem with the prospect of working on Christmas in the future, as long as I'm working at Disney. Yes, the parks are crazy and it's a stressful day, but at least I'd be home for Christmas, and that's really all that matters, right?

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 23).

Day 1070: Killian, Killian Jones

I take some comfort in the fact that I'm writing this so long after the initial mid-season finale of Once Upon A Time that I no longer have to worry about spoilers getting out. I mean, after all, I'm pretty sure we all know by now who dies. 

But just in case you don't, you probably shouldn't read any more. 

Regardless, the end of another half season of my favorite show calls for a roundup of the DisneyBounds that helped make Season 5 so interesting! I went back to a few old favorite characters here, but for the most part it was all about the new and original characters that were brought into the storyline this season! 

Since #DarkSwan seemed to be the theme this season, we had to begin with a DisneyBound inspired by our favorite hero turned dark! I actually LOVED putting this one together, and the shoes are to die for. I still call them my "Dark Swan Heels," and ironically enough, that's just about all I bought to put this outfit together! Everything else was already in my closet! 

King Arthur, oh King Arthur. To be honest, I love Liam, but I could do without this supposedly "noble" king. Either way, this DisneyBound brought some interesting additions into my closet, like the cardigan that I now wear all the time or a pair of bright silver shoes!

Lancelot has been one of my favorite characters since we saw him in Season Two, and I was thrilled to see him back on the screen again (and not dead)! For this one I reused those shoes I found for Arthur and added a bright blue shirt and red belt to go along with his crest and colors, as well as my grey leather jacket to symbolize his armor!

I've only ever done a Rumpelstiltskin bound one other time, and this time I had the perfect pants to go along with it! Reusing the Dark Swan Heels and pairing it with a black vest and golden shirt really made this one work out pretty well!

When I saw Emma in her dress in Camelot I knew immediately that a DisneyBound had to be in the works. All it took was locating a flower crown to make this one work, and it offered the perfect contrast between Light and Dark Swan for this season!

Merida was actually my first ever DisneyBound way back in the day, so to be able to revisit her character for a DisneyBound for the show was an opportunity I was certainly excited about! The only problem is her color scheme is pretty hard to be creative with, but at the same time, I love her hair, and I already had the accessories pulled together to make this one work!

Merlin quickly became a favorite character, and ironically enough, I bought the perfect shirt for his DisneyBound years ago. It's been in my closet ever since, and I actually almost got rid of it once. Still, something told me to keep it, and now I'm really glad I did!

An entire episode dedicated to Brave definitely called for another DisneyBound from the characters! After a bit of debating, I just knew it had to be her mother, especially since I already had the perfect green dress to make it work!

It's kind of hard to pick favorites when you love DisneyBounding OUAT so much, but this one may just be my favorite of all time. I may or may not have picked my glasses a few months ago so they'd match Emma's from the show, and when I came across the plaid dress at the store a few months ago, I knew it had to come home. Pretty sure I'll be wearing this one again, preferably to a fan event of some sort! 

And to round out this half of the season, it just had to be Papa Hook! We've been waiting for so long to meet Killian's father, and when we found out we'd be meeting him in the midseason finale I had to make the decision between a Dark Hook DisneyBound and Papa Hook. As you can see, the later won, allowing for me to reuse the shirt from Rumple as well as an old pair of pants I also got for OUAT DisneyBounds! 

But honestly, DisneyBounds aside, I cried a lot, and I'm definitely ready to head to the underworld so we can get Killian back. In the meantime, I'll just be over here eagerly awaiting his return, because really, how long can any of us live without a bit of Hook in our lives? 

Have a magical day! 

(Note: This blog post was written on December 23).

Day 1069: An Awfully Big Adventure

When I make my quote canvases, regardless of what they're for, I usually pick the quote on them for some sort of reason. When it comes to the canvas that's in my bedroom at college currently, I don't remember at all why I picked the quote I did, but I'm sort of glad I did. For some odd reason, this quote has become just as important to me as the original one that's in our basement, which holds my favorite quote:

The quote canvas that sits on the wall above my bed at home is as follows: 

I shared that photo as an addition to this year's #101Smiles, but I had no idea where it would take me from there. A few days later, Andrew Ducote was a special guest on Thingamavlogs and shared some of his favorite Peter Pan movies. I ended up sharing the above picture with him, and one thing led to another: 

I'm so absolutely honored to have created this canvas for Andrew and his family, and I realize now that this quote is absolutely another perfect example of my life, which is usually more crazy than I can keep up with. But that's all part of the fun, because living is an awfully big adventure! 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 23).

Day 1068: Bringing It Back

Go on, hit play on the above video so you can have some theme music for this blog post! 

A couple of years ago I blogged about playing Sleigh Ride with my high school band and wind ensemble, especially how it always reminds me of the Disney Parks because the song continuously plays throughout them at the holidays. Because I tend to visit Walt Disney World during the holiday season, I always end up hearing Sleigh Ride. 

Well, Sleigh Ride is back. 

For the second year at St. Norbert College since I've attended, we played Sleigh Ride. Honestly we all kind of expected it to happen for some reason, and when I noticed Sleigh Ride on the pile of music for me to copy for the group, I couldn't help but laugh. It's only been two years, and actually, you can read about the last time HERE. 

Long story short, I felt the need to bring back Sleigh Ride for another celebration this Christmas around...even if it does make me miss home even more! On the bright side, our Festival of Christmas concert went really well this year! So that's good! 

Have a magical day! 

(Note: This blog post was written on December 25).

Day 1067: Finding Neverland

Not completely a Disney thing this time, but I still felt it was worth mentioning. A few weeks back one of my friends at school had me listening to the soundtrack for the Broadway Musical Finding Neverland, which I followed on Twitter some time beforehand because it sounded interesting. That was about it though, and I didn't think much else of it until I actually heard the soundtrack. Because I have Spotify now, it's more than easy to find just about any album I want. 

Honestly, there's several reasons that I'm probably in love with this soundtrack and musical. First, the fact that it's Peter Pan inspired really gets to me. That's just awesome (from a Disney perspective, but especially a fairy tale perspective), especially since it's about the creation of Peter Pan. I like all things Hook, so that helps too, and then you throw in a little Matthew Morrison and some inspirational music and you've got me, well, Hooked. 

Personally, I'm completely in love with the song "Stronger," but I regularly listen to the entire soundtrack. In fact, for a couple of weeks I ended up listening to "Stronger" just about every morning on my way to class as motivation for my day (considering the fact that I'm still alive, I assume it worked well). 

So now Finding Neverland is on my list of shows that I just really, really want to see, although I do wish Matthew Morrison wasn't leaving in the near future. It sort of puts a damper on things, but it's still a brilliant musical and maybe someday, just maybe, I'll be able to catch a performance of it. 

If you haven't listened to it, you can find the Album from the original Broadway cast HERE on Spotify! 

Have a magical day! 

(Note: This blog post was written on December 25).

Day 1066: For the First Time in...Two Years?

It's sort of a shame when you're really into something one year, and by the same time the next year it's fallen out of favor. I suppose that's simply the way of life, of course, because as time goes on your interests change, especially due to the influence of those around you. When I left high school, Star Wars was pretty much my entire life, and by the time I made it to college, I was surrounded by people more interested in Once Upon A Time than Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. So I went along with it, and the more I got into OUAT, the more Star Wars fell out of favor, and suddenly I woke up and realized I hadn't even watched the films in a couple of years.

I used to watch The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi almost daily. Since I had both the VHS and DVD copies (and later BluRay as well), it was easy to watch them over and over again. In fact, I got so used to them playing in the background, I just let them go while I was doing homework. They were my background noise that, over time, made it easier to do homework (especially Empire, because I'd work during the Luke parts and watch during the Han parts). I had almost every line memorized, and even my cat came to like the films and would join me whenever they were on.

So with the new film coming out this Christmas, I knew that I had to do something. While I still know the films incredibly well, I needed a refresher. Like so many of my fellow Star Wars fans, I set out to watch the entire trilogy before heading to the theater to see the new film, and somehow, I managed to accomplish this task. I watched all six films before going to see The Force Awakens.

I did, however, watch them in an incredibly strange order. Because I prefer the original trilogy (and I've seen the entire saga so many times before), I decided to start with Episode I to see the more chronological version of the series, and I managed to watch I and II in the same night. I was working on a music analysis project and a paper at the same time, which meant I was probably more focused on Carnival of the Animals than I was Star Wars, but I still watched them!

Then, when I returned home for a weekend, my brother and his friends decided to watch Episode IV, which led to a really late, midnight watch of V that same night (I unfortunately fell asleep part way through and JUST MISSED the carbonate scene. I woke up at "is he alive Calrissian?" and I was oh so angry), but I still counted it. I've seen that one more than any of the others anyways. Then a couple of days later I ended up going back to watch Episode III because my brother didn't want to watch on that night because he had work to get done (he ended up watching the end anyways). And finally, the night before heading to see The Force Awakens we finished up with Episode VI. So by the end I watched it in the order of I, II, IV, V, III, VI. Strange, I know.

But now, somehow, Star Wars has infiltrated my life once again, and I find myself more excited about Han Solo and Chewbacca than most other things. It's sort of nice, going back to such familiar territory so I can celebrate the release of a new film with my fellow Star Wars fans, and don't even get me started about how excited I am to attend Season of the Force at Hollywood Studios in a few weeks!

In summary...Star Wars is awesome.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 25).

Day 1065: Star Wars Finals

Finals Week is rough...but this year, my finals week happens to fall in line with the premiere of The Force Awakens. Of course, our Star Wars friends don't have to deal with finals week, but it seems like they might understand what it's all about anyway...

When you start out finals week with a bad feeling...

Because the entire semester you've been sitting in class like:

Your professors start to tell you that everything will be fine:

But you just look at them with a blank face.

As you leave for your final, you salute your roommates and friends goodbye. 

You head off repeating "it'll work" to yourself. 

And try to convince yourself that you feel like you can take on the whole galaxy. 

Somehow, you manage to make it through the test, and you leave the room with the absolute excitement that you never have to deal with that class again.

Although when your friends and family ask how you think it went you're just like: 

And then, just as quickly as it began, finals week is over. 

May the force be with you this semester! 

Have a magical day! 

(Note: This blog post was written on December 25).