Thanksgiving in Disney World

My first Thanksgiving celebration was Monday night when the college program housing put on a big event with full catering! There was a lot of food! (We realized why our rent was so expensive). Earlier this day, one of my roommates, Rebecca, and I started decorating for Christmas with a huge paper chain, streamers, and construction paper, we've done pretty well I'd say!

Tuesday was my second consecutive day off as was Rebecca's, we cleaned up the apartment for the monthly apartment inspections coming up, continued to decorate for Christmas, and went to Publix to get some Thanksgiving essentials. Then when we came back, we decided to adventure to Disney Springs to watch Moana, and oh my gawd it was AMAZING! Highly recommend going to see it!!! My roommates and my coworkers both can't stop listening to the soundtrack! Rebecca and I literally could not stop talking about it for awhile after it ended!! We're already considering it one of our favorite Disney movies ever!

So then on Wednesday, I went to see Moana again with my other roommate Luci! Twice in 24 hours and I am not ashamed. I went to work, and got home around 3 am (the usual), but I was not about to sleep past Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the AKC National Dog Show airing in 5-6 hours! So I slept on the living room couch so I could turn on the television right when I woke up and not have to get up :) That worked out well until I realized that I still slept through the first hour of the parade. When I got myself up, I determinedly made two pumpkin pies and rice krispie treats and prepared myself for another day of work! I got off surprisingly early for me at the crack of 11pm and when I got home, the apartment munched devoured some amazing mac and cheese and a full Thanksgiving meal that Tiarra made for us! She was on a role! It was so good and we had lots of leftovers!

Our apartment is now in full Christmas mode, stockings are hung by the little Christmas tree with care push pins that we may get fined for, and baking has been happening frequently :) We're also doing a secret Santa gift exchange among us roommates. I have so much to be thankful for; my work location was like winning the lottery, my group of roommates couldn't be any more perfect, my coworkers are uplifting, this whole program really couldn't be any better! I'm feeling so enormously blessed this season, I can't wait to see what winter adventures are to come!


Merry Christmas!

Carlie

your girl posing with a plaza sundae in the top left of our work location bulletin

throughout the year, disney employees are automatically signed up for classes. i had one earlier in the month on sanitation (specifically for those working with food), and a few weeks ago, i had another focusing on how cast members create magical guest experiences every day; complete with disney memorabilia 

also from a few weeks ago; our last roomie dinner with the food that makes up lasha (chick-fil-a) before she left

the weather really cooled down for about a week; you know you're accustomed to florida when 57 feels mighty chilly

also made this delicious sweet potato green beans and shrimp thing that i'm proud of

and got a little crafty practicing calligraphy and hand lettering

 

the monday that we got free food from housing, it was chilly. i was so excited to have an excuse to wear my bean boots that i decided to take a picture

the free food feast! we were pretty happy! 

apartment picture feat. kelly, food, christmas tree, and a section of our massive paper chain 

ticket stubs from my first viewing of moana 

the thanksgiving evening feast! 

tiarra, rebecca, luci, and me! 

found the best fireworks viewing location at the bus stop that takes employees from the parking lot to the park 

and a nice panorama of our living room/dining room decorations complete with hanukkah for samantha, birthday balloons and banner from lucis birthday, and my breakfast on the table

Out with Halloween, in with Christmas!

As turkey day nears, I've realized there's a lot to catch y'all up on! So let's go back to right after my mama, Janie, and Loren left...

About a week later, LaSha, Tiffani, and I went with Luci to her birthday brunch at the Boardwalk Resort! It was Luci's 21st, so we had some Kahlua in our iced coffees. :) Later in the week, I went with Luci to EPCOT to celebrate us being 21 Food & Wine style! I added a few more countries to my EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Passport, and once again, everything I had was really delicious! I highly recommend coming to Disney World during the fall when Food & Wine is happening! It's a little spendy, but a really fun outing too!

Unfortunately, the next week I got a bad sore throat; I went to work one day thinking it wouldn't be that bad, but after a 10 hour shift, I ended up completely losing my voice, and even when my voice got a little better, a cough came at me. Because of this, I had to miss my Leadership 101 class which dropped me from taking the class at all (since there are only 4 sessions, they're pretty strict on attendance, so once you miss one, you can't come at all). I was also bummed that I had to call out on three separate occasions from work, one of them being Halloween. I didn't get to wish people a true happy Halloween at work, but I enjoyed my night ordering Dominos and watching Friends with my roommate Kelly when she got home.

During the time when I was in between a sore throat and a cough, Luci's mom came to visit her, and I joined them to celebrate Luci's birthday once again! Luci's mom took us to a piano bar called JellyRolls which is at Disney's Boardwalk Resort and it was really fun!

As for the Magic Kingdom, fall/Halloween has now passed and winter/Christmas is in full swing!!! Yippee!!! Normally, I'm pretty adamant on not decorating or fully celebrating Christmas until Thanksgiving has passed, but I can make an exception for Disney :) Working on Main street is once again showing its wonder as the street looks like something out of White Christmas.

Since I'm already celebrating Christmas early, I went ahead and attended one of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parties! At the Christmas parties, Disney gives out unlimited cookies and hot cocoa!! It was wonderful! I also took pictures with Santa Goofy and Scrooge McDuck!

Yesterday, LaSha and I went to Magic Kingdom again for the day! She's leaving me to go back home on Friday (her old job offered her a position too good to pass up), so we enjoyed going on rides, exploring Tom Sawyer's Island, and shopping with our cast member discount :)

With the Disney Halloween parties over, I must say that I highly recommend going to the parks when they're decorated for Halloween! The Halloween parties are great because only so many people are let into the park and you get to experience three exclusive shows which equates to about an hour of entertainment, and if you're all about meeting characters, than you get the chance to meet ones that aren't normally available, including Jack and Sally from Nightmare before Christmas. Disney also gives you boatloads of candy, so it's really hard to complain! I would say the ideal time would be early October because it's close enough to Halloween that you feel in the spirit, but early enough that the parks are less crowded overall and the ticket for the party is a little cheaper.

Florida is still treating me wonderfully! Happy early Thanksgiving!


All love,

Carlie

warm chocolate pudding with irish cream liqueur custard in Ireland

smoked beef brisket and pimento cheese served on grilled garlic toast & sam adams rebel grapefruit IPA in America

pineapple dole whip soft serve with bacardi coconut rum at the refreshment post

buttered chicken with micro cilantro and naan bread & jam jar sweet shiraz in Africa

canta-loopy in China

mango margarita & churros in Mexico

met Belle yet again :) i had her sign my food & wine festival passport

a cute polaroid from Mexico of Luci and I

we met Minnie and Pluto together! as you can see, Minnie and I are now BFFs

also shamelessly met Baymax again

Luci and I's funny photostrip after riding the Figment of Imagination ride for the first time

a fun photopass picture of Luci and I holding balloons

Kelly and I on Halloween plus my craft for the night

inside the cone shop, featuring our christmas wreaths!

me and some of my coworkers at the end of a shift one night

the christmas tree at the front of main street usa

the swiss family robinson treehouse was recently refurbished and just reopenned! i love that movie!

luci and i at jellyrolls

the bus stop at magic kingdom for cast members had to be relocated for a bit; i crackedup at the added foliage for ambiance

when i first arrived at the christmas party, disney was doing some filming for the upcoming christmas specials! although the descendants movie isn't necessarily of my disney generation, it was still neat to see!

a few of the special treats i had during the christmas party

along with sugar cookies and hot cocoa, there as snickerdoodles, ginger molasses cookies, eggnog, and apple cider!

on the right is a treat from the cone shop where i work, my coworkers added some fun mickey stuff to make me feel special!

donald duck and scrooge mcduck

only at disney world does it snow on a floridian main street

santa goofy!

luci, lasha, and i celebrated national pizza day the right way

love mickey sandwiches :)

lasha and i got matching antenna toppers :)

i snagged a special christmas cookie sandwich from the cone shop before leaving the park! soooooo sweet but sooooo goooood

me and my roommate lasha!

apparently it's a thing for cast members to take pictures in front of 'the purple wall'

i'm not sure why, but lasha and i figured we needed to take part

made lasha explore every bit of tom sawyer's island with me

i've grown to have an obsession with the grand floridian hotel! one of their iconic christmas festivities is building a one story tall gingerbread house! so here it is in these next pictures among the beautiful victorian architecture of the grand floridian :)

and one last picture of the grand floridian, the seven seas lagoon, and one of the fairyboats