As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Our big celebration with my family is on Christmas Eve. We gather at our house, eat a big feast and wait for Santa to appear to give each of the kids a small gift. After Santa leaves, we exchange gifts with those we won't see on Christmas day.
Christmas day is the best for us. We get up whenever DD wakes us, (which is usually around 5 AM) open presents and then have breakfast. It is tradition that we don't leave the house that day and enjoy just spending time together as a family and watching our DD play with all of her Christmas loot. We just hang out and relax and for our evening meal, we have a prime rib.
Christmas Eve we go to my aunts around 5 for h'ors d'ouevres (sp?) and wine. Around 6:30, we eat. She usually makes prime rib and ham and a bunch of yummy side dishes. Then we have a sinful dessert. We are usually done around 8 and we head downstairs to open presents. The kids play Santa and hand out all the gifts. It takes us a long time - usually around 2 hours. Then we have more snacks and pop. Then I have to drive the 1/2 home. Ick. We usually get home around midnight, then I put the kids to bed and put out the Christmas morning presents. The boys usually sleep in a little Christmas morning. I get up, make them wait while I put the prepared monkey bread in the oven...then we gather around the tree and open Santa presents and stockings. Then we eat said monkey bread and play around with all the new stuff.
Around 3, we head to my gmas house for dinner. She makes lasagna and a bunch of yummy side dishes. Then we have our choice of pie - always mint and pecan, then a cream pie (coconut, banana). Then the guys watch t.v. and the ladies play a card game. We usually get home around 9PM and play around with all the new stuff. Then it's back to reality.
__________________
*~*Tina
Picking up our Brasilian exchange student at the a/p
Since I am new to my job this year, I will be working day shift at the hospital on Christmas Day. That means Christmas for me will have to wait until I get off work at 3:30pm. Then I will head over to DM's house to open gifts and have dinner with DM and DD who will be home for a couple of weeks over the holidays. I can't complain though. I would much rather be working and able to go home to my family at the end of the day instead of those people who will be stuck in the hospital over the holidays. Happy Holidays everyone!
Thanks so much for sharing, it sounds like everyone has a lovely Christmas planned. Something that really did surprise me is that some people in the retail industry will be working Christmas Day. Over here the shops do not open Christmas Day and Easter as they are such a religious day. My Dad usually used to work Christmas Day but he worked at an oil refinery which was open 365 days a year. He is very glad to be retired now.
I hope the people who are working do have a lovely Christmas too .
Our whole extended family gets together on Christmas Eve for dinner and the menu has been the same for generations. First we share the oplatek.Polish Christmas Traditions: Sharing the Oplatek
The meal is homemade mushroom barley soup, smoked whitefish and lots of pierogi . Then its Christmas cookies and the opening of small gifts.
Christmas morning my siblings and our families meet at my mom's or one of my brothers' homes to open presents. We're usually all in our pjs. . How we spend the rest of the day depends on my mood. Sometimes we visit friends, last year we went to Atlantic City for the evening . Not sure what this year will bring.
This Christmas we will be a WDW!! We will get up whenever DD wakes up to see what Santa brought and then DH will probably run to the food court to get breakfast, we have no plans for the morning so DD can play with what Santa brings her then we are going to AK for a few hours before our dinner reservation at Brown Derby and then we are going to see the Osborne lights! Then back to the room to pack b/c we head home the 26th and will have Christmas again with my family that weekend!
Our day will start after a hectic Christmas eve in the restaurant we own. With their grandparents, our kids will be our looking at the pretty lights on all the local homes then handing out lollies to the kids in our street. (Wish I was home for that).
My folks are visiting from interstate and are staying with us over the new year too. On Christmas morning the older kids will wake about 8ish and come to convince us it's time to leave our beds! DH will grab the videocam and head downstairs first to capture the kids excitement. The eldest and the middle child will argue over who will get the youngest out of bed and there is a guaranteed amount of tears to happen before breakfast. Once everyone is downstairs the kids will open their stockings to reveal Santa's gifts(one is certain to be disappointed the expensive gift she "had to have" will not be there). The kids will then discover Santa has not eaten all the cake and drunk all his milk before begging to give out the gifts they have made/bought for others. We exchange gifts and leave all the mess on the loungeroom floor whilst we try to have a healthy breakfast of toast, cereal and eggs. An annual christmas photo is taken with the family in front of the tree with the kids holding their fav present. After a made scramble to get ready, we front up at church just like all the other church families...a mix-match of red/green colours, clutching a new toy or wearing new clothes/headbands/shoes (even if they clash) & always slightly late. The service always ends early with promises to catch up tommorrow for christmas "afters" - a free for all feast of the church members/families leftovers...mmm I can taste it already!
For the last two years we have treated ourselves to a lunch cruise on Sydney Harbour for christmas day. Working in hospitality we serve others daily and this is our only day of the year we are closed. We don't have huge wastage/leftovers from our fridge because we don't have the need to purchase great amounts of christmas items. Lunch usually includes a selection of cold salads, cold chicken/turkey, hot veggies with pavlova and fruit cake for dessert. All this glorious food on a boat cruising the scenic harbour with on board entertainment ( a comic magician) AND no washing up! The arvo is spent visiting friends and DH's godparents and finally onto home where we rest easy watching the christmas specials (Charlie Brown, Simpson's and the Wiggles). If we make it to 8.30pm without more tears or tantrums, I'm thrilled! On Boxing Day we go back to work....
Merry Christmas to you and yours, hope your day is as fun filled as ours!
Luke and Brooke are usually awake by 5:30AM on 'normal' days so I'm thinking 4:30AM or so we'll be awakened this year I think last year it was around the same time, too. They'll bring their stockings into our room to open then we'll head out to the family room to see what Santa left everyone After they open everything I'll start breakfast and we'll watch the parade. DH's grandfather (88 years old) is the only family we have even remotely close to us so he'll head over to pick him up (about 40 miles away) and bring him back for dinner. Dinner will be ham, scalloped potatoes, veggies, rolls, egg nog and the yule log (still to be made) for dessert. We'll all probably bring Great-Grandpa back home in the early evening. The kids and I are off from 12/21 until 1/3 so we'll have time to try out all the new toys and Brooke will have time to model all her new outfits I can't wait!!
We normally start on Christmas Eve with pizza and watching Donovan's Reef (parents are real John Wayne fans). Christmas morning we get up to see what Santa brought. My DS normally makes Monkey Bread and cinnamon rolls with sausage and coffee. Lunch is aournd 1pm and is normally turkey and ham, with dressing, sweet potato caserole, asparagus casserole, scalloped potatos, assorted pickles and olives, and home made rolls. For dessert we normally have homemade pies and cookies. This year, I'm going to have to roll myself into the car and leave for home early, so I can go to work.
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We usually get home around 9PM and play around with all the new stuff. Then it's back to reality.
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http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m83/kazzamcgazza/dlp-1.jpg
. Then its Christmas cookies and the opening of small gifts.
. Not sure what this year will bring.
Margo
I think last year it was around the same time, too. They'll bring their stockings into our room to open then we'll head out to the family room to see what Santa left everyone
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