My Very "Meety" Christmas Party - COMPLETED!! 12/15/10 - Page 27 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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OK, I'm finally all caught up. And I have a few comments:
Quote:
I had purchased some icy cold Budweiser at the Mercantile earlier and had kept it nice and cold in my refrigerator. I'd bought 5 bottles -- one for each night, purely for medicinal purposes, of course! I lounged on my bed with my cold beer and reflected on my lovely first (half) day.
Such a STL girl! J
What an awesome breakfast with Woody, Buz, & Bullseye! Very cool!
Cindy – you are SO thoughtful!! From the extra $$ for mousekeepers, to the signed backpack for your co-worker’s daughter, to the other little gifts you gave out – you are GREAT!
The HBD story is too funny! I love it!
I love all the holiday borders this year for the Photopass pics. I don’t remember them being so nice last year.
What a truly magical time at Osborne Lights!
Thank you so much for sharing this trip with us. It was truly magical to read!
Now on to read about WL!
After seeing you drink several margaritas this trip, we must have our own meet here in STL sometime for some!
OK, I'm finally all caught up. And I have a few comments:
Such a STL girl! J
What an awesome breakfast with Woody, Buz, & Bullseye! Very cool!
Cindy – you are SO thoughtful!! From the extra $$ for mousekeepers, to the signed backpack for your co-worker’s daughter, to the other little gifts you gave out – you are GREAT!
The HBD story is too funny! I love it!
I love all the holiday borders this year for the Photopass pics. I don’t remember them being so nice last year.
What a truly magical time at Osborne Lights!
Thank you so much for sharing this trip with us. It was truly magical to read!
Now on to read about WL!
After seeing you drink several margaritas this trip, we must have our own meet here in STL sometime for some!
Kelly, I am "up" for margaritas anytime! We've got to get together!
Lovely trip report Cindy! Thanks for all the laughs. It is nice to live vicariously through you!
Hey Alison! I still want to get back to the Happy Place with you and yours sometime! How are you doing?
Yesterday Rick and I did the "day after Christmas" thing and went to Macy's. The store had been open for several hours by the time we got there, but Rick wanted to peruse the Christmas ornaments section just to see if there was anything we really liked. Guess what we found? A few of the Mickey's Christmas Village characters, including one that hadn't been at the Art of Disney store earlier in the month. So of course I bought this little guy at 50% off!
I'm not sure Donald is cut out to be a firefighter -- that hose looks pretty tangled around his foot.
So here's the whole collection -- unless there are a few others out there that I'm not aware of!
When I got to my office this morning, I had a present from my dear friend and coworker Margie -- and I swear I have never SEEN this Hallmark ornament before, and I thought I had every B&TB thing around!
Now let's backtrack a bit to Christmas Eve. Cafe Provencale (my favorite St. Louis restaurant) had never been open for dinner on Christmas Eve before, and we had never even considered going out to eat on that night. But Paul & Robbie were available, and so the four of us had a wonderful feast and a leisurely time. It was yummy as always.
Of course, you rarely see me at Cafe Provencal without a glass of wine -- I talked Robbie into trying Kir, which we both decided we like a lot.
That's an artfully-sculpted lemon peel curled around the glass.
It is SO rare to actually have a white Christmas in St. Louis, but we were blessed with a perfect snow! No ice at all and the stuff was powdery enough that I took a broom to the driveway and got it clean. We got 2-3 inches total -- it started falling on Christmas Eve and just kept up a slow, silent, magical descent. It was no trouble to drive, and most of the road crews did a great job getting it off the roadways anyway.
I took this "creepy" shot of the tree in Rick's front yard before going to bed that night:
And when I got up Christmas morning:
From the back deck yesterday afternoon, when the sun came out:
I didn't attempt to walk down the steps -- looks like an excellent sled run, doesn't it?
I took a vacation day last Thursday to get all my running-around-before-Christmas stuff done, and noticed a cul-de-sac a couple miles away where all the neighbors were clearly in cahoots. Every front yard had old-fashioned wooden characters on display -- and some were Disney!
Yesterday when Rick and I were hitting all the "after Christmas sales," I mentioned that if we were in the neighborhood, I'd love to take my camera and get pics of these wooden characters in the snow. "Sure," he replied. And he was quite patient as I took tons of photos. I've whittled them down to a manageable few that I'll share here:
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On Christmas Day, I woke up way ahead of Rick and decided to take pics of most of my Disney Christmas ornaments, for your viewing pleasure:
Here's a new one Rick just gave me:
Rick bought me a Mickey choo-choo train a couple years ago, and I love to let it run around the tree. Mickey's arm waves while the train is chugging and the music is playing "Jingle Bells."
Here are a couple Jim Shore pieces Rick gave me this year:
Here's a little candy box a coworker gave me years ago, and I always hang it on the tree -- but I feel a bit bashful about it (not!)
Every year, Rick's ornaments get fewer in number because I need more and more space on the tree for my Disney stuff. He loves to complain about it but he also gets a kick out of it every year when we decorate the tree. He says, "Every box you open, you say "Ooohh -- I LOVE this one!" And of course, I do!
I requested this one last year, which Rick found odd -- but I don't think it's crazy to have these two on the tree, do you?
I love how Cogsworth gets no respect -- looks like he lost the snowball fight, doesn't it? While my beloved Lumi doesn't have a speck of snow on him!
The flames must have melted the snow!!
I got 4 different Jim Shore snowmen (I collect snowmen) for Christmas! Maybe I'll post pictures...
Love all your ornaments, and the wooden lawn figures are cool! Love that the whole street got in on it.
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