One of this week’s Mama Kat’s World Famous writing prompts brought me a flood of memories.
“It happened at Disneyland… “ Read on.
Living in the city of Angels gives me an opportunity to be literally a hop skip and a jump away from the Happiest Place on Earth (also known as the most expensive, but I digress) . My first visit ever to Disneyland was one I was just a month old. Of course this was in the days when you didn’t have to give a liver and promise for other body part upon death to get in. We had family visiting and dad always made sure they had a trip to Disneyland. I guess that is why I took it for granted for so many years that it was so close. I was always excited to go, but alas it would always be there. I lost the true magic of the place somewhere and didn’t go for years. Somewhere between high school Grad night at Disney and the one or two trips after that, I lost the love for it.
This love loss prevented me from ever wanting to go again. That is until about two years ago. Thing One and Thing Two fell in love with the Mickey Mouse Club House. They were sucked into the world of Disney. DARN YOU CATCHY SONG!
Then there were endless birthday wishes of “I want to see where Mickey and Minnie live Momma” . There eyes pleading, begging. How do I fight this? Easy I looked at the prices and nearly passed out. “What do you mean I have to pay for a 3 year old???!!! “ Commercialism at it’s best. They wanted me to bite. I didn’t instead I took them to Disney on Ice. What is a single mom to do after all. So for the next year after seeing Disney Ice they did nothing but talk about the experience and how the loved it.
I got it folks “Parent Guilt”. So for the next year I plotted and planned on how to make Disneyland more affordable to a single mom. I found ways around it and saved money and I got us tickets for the most magical time of the year at Disneyland, the holidays.
People, do you know what happened? I LOVED LOVED LOVED sharing it through the eyes of two excited little children. Their excitement and joy was mine. Everything was new and everything was worth seeing. Even sharing the scary moment of meeting the characters and freaking out with Thing Two was worth every penny. I’m already planning next year’s trip. When the castle was lit and we were on Main Street and the man made snow fell as the gentle Christmas music played I cried. I get it now, I get why my dad would take us all the time. It’s not about how much he spent; it was about the magic he saw in my eyes.
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| It was a wonderful 1st visit to the Magic Kingdom! |
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