Sharing the Disney Magic with Family & Friends-DL Diamond Anniversary-DCA F&W Fest Kiosks & The End!

[franandaj]

So because after posting about our lunch on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and folks seemed to think that's what we did for the actual Thanksgiving, I decided to post the pictures I took on my phone of what we had for Thanksgiving. I also edited my post on the Sunday to make it a little more clear.

This was our appetizers. Naked Jim put together this cute crudité plate. My parents had all kinds of cheese, and I'm not sure who provided the champagne.



This is our main course serving. In the back you'll see a sweet potato casserole, there's dressing and turkey in the middle (BTW we actually deep fried the turkey, it was delicious!), green bean casserole and potatoes and gravy in the foreground. Also my Dad is pouring the wine.



Here are the desserts that we served on Thanksgiving. There were brownies, a chocolate fudge cake, apple cinnamon cupcakes, cinnamon bun cupcakes, and the things in the foreground are Reece's squates, they were good!

 

[afwdwfan]

Sorry, I might have missed some detail when I read it. That happens. I did realize your mom went along, but it just seemed that your dad maybe had a little more pep in his step and you were having some special moments with him.

Both meals look great though. Thanksgiving day and Sunday. Love me some fried turkey...

 

[franandaj]

Sorry, I might have missed some detail when I read it. That happens. I did realize your mom went along, but it just seemed that your dad maybe had a little more pep in his step and you were having some special moments with him.

Both meals look great though. Thanksgiving day and Sunday. Love me some fried turkey...

No problem. I think I must have worded something awkwardly as well. Both you and Liesa came to the same conclusion so I edited the original post and put up these pics I had taken on my phone from Turkey day. I had posted them on "that other social media site". We're lovin' our turkey fryer! II think I'm going to make another one in the next couple weeks.

Also my Dad has changed a lot in the last 15-20 years. Growing up he used to be much less acessible personally, so I guess I have been having better times with him. Not sure if it's me getting older or him just opening up.more.

 

[jedijill]

Your Thanksgiving dinner looked delicious as well!

What cruise are you doing in Feb 2017?

Jill in CO

 

[franandaj]

Your Thanksgiving dinner looked delicious as well!

What cruise are you doing in Feb 2017?

Jill in CO

We have an Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy. Includes Tortola, one other Island group and CC. 3 days at sea. Feb 25.

 

[jedijill]

We have an Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy. Includes Tortola, one other I land group and CC. 3 days at sea. Feb 25.

I'm plotting. I need to break up the winter and I have a cruise itch.

Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

All caught up again. FAR too much to comment on individually, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoy following you around. And all that food really made me hungry. Going to have some dinner now.

 

[dhorner233]

I'm sorry to hear you are not the Band Manager any more and that that means you may not play at DL any more! I have a friend/former student who is way better than me on French horn and we were fantasizing about playing with your band! We play in our little community band up here but.......

Your meal at the Club was beautiful as always. They are so artsy the way the present the food. All those dots and drizzles. :

Yes, I know your Mom was there too - but it's nice you had some quality time with your Dad. I have some fond memories of my Dad at DL/DW. He loved to ride the roller coasters. My Mother was there too but she never liked the parks as much as my Dad and I did.

 

[dvc at last !]

Thanksgiving looks delish - we have Thanksgiving at a sister and they have been deep frying the bird for a few years - it is good !

Your lunch out looks amazing and so perfectly served.

Glad you and Dad had a great time !

 

[Pinkocto]

Sunday after Thanksgiving looked amazing! Lots of delicious choices on the menu and extra fun to have park time with your parents

the desserts at Thanksgiving are mouthwatering!

 

[PrincessInOz]

What great Thanksgiving meals. Now I want dessert!

Sounds like you had a wonderful visit with your folks.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I forget who won, but we enjoyed our trip through tail light caverns.

In all the times I have done this ride now, I have never noticed this. How pretty.

I started off with my usual Diamond Martini.

That looks so good right now. Lunch looked lovely, too.

Donald and Pluto were out in the lobby and I got to meet with them. My Dad made a huge faux pas calling Pluto Goofy!

What a bonus to have the characters there.

I don’t normally get that kind of time with my Dad so I wasn’t going to stop it, but we had a good time on Hyperspace Mountain.

It is great that you got to spend some quality time with your dad.

This was our appetizers. Naked Jim put together this cute crudité plate. My parents had all kinds of cheese, and I'm not sure who provided the champagne.

That crudité plate looks amazing and the rest of dinner also looks delicious. I cannot imagine what fried turkey would taste like, but I know a lot of people love it.

Corinna

 

[mvf-m11c]

The Thanksgiving meal looks amazing. Glad that you had a great visit with your folks.

 

[franandaj]

I'm plotting. I need to break up the winter and I have a cruise itch.

Jill in CO

We would love to have you come along! I wish you had a travel companion to help you out with the costs! On our American Queen Cruise they actually have "single" rooms.

All caught up again. FAR too much to comment on individually, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoy following you around. And all that food really made me hungry. Going to have some dinner now.

Well the next update will not be quite as hunger inducing!

I'm sorry to hear you are not the Band Manager any more and that that means you may not play at DL any more! I have a friend/former student who is way better than me on French horn and we were fantasizing about playing with your band! We play in our little community band up here but.......

It doesn't necessarily mean we won't play at DL anymore, it just means I'm not in charge of it so I can't necessarily make sure it happens when I want it to.

Your meal at the Club was beautiful as always. They are so artsy the way the present the food. All those dots and drizzles. :

They do a great job, and I'm glad they final stepped it up because that first year was a little bit sad.

Yes, I know your Mom was there too - but it's nice you had some quality time with your Dad. I have some fond memories of my Dad at DL/DW. He loved to ride the roller coasters. My Mother was there too but she never liked the parks as much as my Dad and I did.

It's funny we took them to WDW six years ago and about two years back we were talking about the possibility of going back, my Dad was gung ho, but my Mom was like, "maybe in about 10 years."

Your lunch out looks amazing and so perfectly served.

Glad you and Dad had a great time !

Thanks, it was a very nice day and not too much.

Sunday after Thanksgiving looked amazing! Lots of delicious choices on the menu and extra fun to have park time with your parents

It was a very nice day, and not too exhausting either!

the desserts at Thanksgiving are mouthwatering!

Thanks! We spend that day and the day before baking. We handed out plates of treats to the various folks that take care of us throughout the year.

What great Thanksgiving meals. Now I want dessert!

Sounds like you had a wonderful visit with your folks.

Yeah, I'm glad we don't have any desserts like that around here right now. I have about 20 pounds to drop!

 

[franandaj]

In all the times I have done this ride now, I have never noticed this. How pretty.

You must be so flustered after the race part. This sections goes by really quickly.

That looks so good right now. Lunch looked lovely, too.

Yeah, I could go for one of those Martinis!

What a bonus to have the characters there.

I think it's a Sunday afternoon thing.

It is great that you got to spend some quality time with your dad.

It was fun. And very different.

That crudité plate looks amazing and the rest of dinner also looks delicious. I cannot imagine what fried turkey would taste like, but I know a lot of people love it.

Jim made the crudité plate. I can't take credit for that one. Fried turkey is great, it's really juicy and the skin is crispy and tasty.

The Thanksgiving meal looks amazing. Glad that you had a great visit with your folks.

Thank you, we always tend to do it up with plenty of food for our little family.

 

[franandaj]

December in the parks finds us visiting with DISers from out of town who came to see Disney at Christmas in the 60th Anniversary. Jenny and her family were in town as well as Jedijill, so we all planned a day that we would meet up together at the parks. We met in the lobby of the Grand Californian and I snapped a picture of the Gingerbread House. While WDW has a long tradition of building Gingerbread houses in the hotel lobbies, this is only the second year that there has been a Gingerbread house at the Grand. I didn’t think to take a look at the other hotels and see if they had Gingerbread houses.



We started off our Day at Paradise Pier. First we rode California Screamin’



Then it was on to Toy Story Midway Mania



We headed over to Radiator Springs Racers next, but we stopped for a group photo op.











We got tires!









Here we go!















I think we went over to Grizzly River Rapids after this. I don’t like to do water rides, so I think I sat this one out with a few others. Then we headed over to lunch. I really wanted to eat at the Paradise Garden Grill, I hadn’t had their Kefta Meatballs in quite some time. Imagine my surprise when we got there and it had been converted to a Mexican restaurant for the Christmas Holiday. So I went for meatballs of another kind at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta.



Jill ordered this Pasta with Chicken.



Jenny shared some of her Chicken Caesar Salad with me.



It worked out to be a decent well rounded lunch even though it was not what I wanted at the time.

We went on Tower of Terror next, that was a fun one!



Then we all decided to hop over to Disneyland. I can write about this now because it has all happened, but as we were crossing Jenny’s husband approached me about helping the kids buy her a Christmas present. With my Premier AP I get a 20% discount and with the purse that they were looking at this would make a big difference. Everyone wanted to ride Splash Mountain, but as I had pointed out earlier, I don’t do water rides. So they all went on ahead to ride Splash and Michael and I stayed behind on Main Street where they were selling the purse the kids wanted to buy for her. Covert operation complete, we headed to the Haunted Mansion to meet up with them.

I rarely go through the actual queue on this ride. Normally with Fran we take the accessible entrance, but this time we used the queue and I was thrilled to be seeing this graveyard.









[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

Soon we were seeing Jack’s handiwork inside the Mansion.
















And then we boarded our “Black Christmas Sleigh”, Zero was hard at work.























Our next ride was Pirates. I wasn’t having the best luck with my lens.























At that point we were pretty much done, so all the adults ordered some drinks.



Jill and I split an order of sliders and fries.



Before we all said goodnight, we took some pictures.





And then we all said goodbye. We had dinner with Jill the following Friday and I just had breakfast with Jenny the other day where she showed me her purse! We’re going to have to do it all again sometime!

 

[dhorner233]

What a nice day at the parks!

It doesn't necessarily mean we won't play at DL anymore, it just means I'm not in charge of it so I can't necessarily make sure it happens when I want it to.

Well let me know if you ever need a French horn!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Which purse did you pick up for Jenny?

Looks like it was a successful day in the park! Boardwalk Pasta seems to be a nice option, even if it wasn't exactly what you wanted. Still a nice step up from a normal counter service with the real plates and silverware!

The Haunted Mansion overlay looks awesome! You are getting better with your dark lens

 

[afwdwfan]

December in the parks finds us visiting with DISers from out of town who came to see Disney at Christmas in the 60th Anniversary. Jenny and her family were in town as well as Jedijill, so we all planned a day that we would meet up together at the parks. We met in the lobby of the Grand Californian and I snapped a picture of the Gingerbread House. While WDW has a long tradition of building Gingerbread houses in the hotel lobbies, this is only the second year that there has been a Gingerbread house at the Grand. I didn’t think to take a look at the other hotels and see if they had Gingerbread houses.

You chose a great place to meet up! I like how the Gingerbread house looks like it is themed similar to the GCH.

I'm glad you all had a chance to get together and head to the parks. It looks like it was a fun day!

I really wanted to eat at the Paradise Garden Grill, I hadn’t had their Kefta Meatballs in quite some time. Imagine my surprise when we got there and it had been converted to a Mexican restaurant for the Christmas Holiday.

Hmmm... that seems kind of like an odd seasonal menu change.

With my Premier AP I get a 20% discount and with the purse that they were looking at this would make a big difference. Everyone wanted to ride Splash Mountain, but as I had pointed out earlier, I don’t do water rides. So they all went on ahead to ride Splash and Michael and I stayed behind on Main Street where they were selling the purse the kids wanted to buy for her. Covert operation complete, we headed to the Haunted Mansion to meet up with them.

I'm glad that you were able to help them out! 20% can make a huge difference on the price of a Disney purse.