Out and About with the Snyders

Aaron and Glenda are in Florida visiting family and we were able to meet up today. We picked a spot midway between us and them, in Winter Park. First we shared a great meal at Bosphorus, a Turkish restaurant. First was the appetizer sampler, followed by a meat sampler of lamb, beef, and chicken. So good!

Afterwards we spent another couple of hours walking around the area. There are so many cute shops here, and most of them are very, very expensive. I am not yet ready to pay $350.00 for a sweater! But it was fun walking through the areas and checking out the unique stores.

Beside shops and shops and more shops, one area had the most beautiful Koi fish I've ever seen.

They even have a couple of long-fin Koi, which might be the prettiest fish ever!

Randy's Hot Chocolate Bomb

This year Randy decided to make Hot Chocolate Bombs for Christmas. Sounds good to me! 

1. Create chocolate shells and fill with hot chocolate mix and peppermint marshmallows. 

2. Put one in hot milk.

3. Wait for chocolate shell to melt.

4. Stir well and enjoy some amazing Hot Chocolate!!!

Christmas at Hollywood Studios and Grand Floridian

Time to do Christmas-y things, like checking out the Gingerbread House and the Hollywood lights! We parked in Hollywood Studios and took the monorail to the Grand Floridian, by way of Epcot. Inside this beautiful hotel is a really beautiful Christmas tree. 

And behind it is the Gingerbread House!

This is made from 1,050 pounds of honey (what a great start!), 140 pints of egg whites, 600 pounds of powdered sugar, 800 pounds of flour, and 35 pounds of spices. Love this!

By then it was getting dark enough to enjoy the lights, so we got back on the monorail and returned to Epcot, then walked to the back of Epcot and across to Hollywood Studios. Disney only decorates the front of their parks now. Hollywood's tree is similar to the trees in the other parks, which is not a bad thing!

The Tower of Terror is transformed into the Tower of Big Screen - it's the backdrop for some lovely special effects. 

What makes this our favorite Christmas display is the old-fashioned touches, like the bigchina poodle set.

Our favorites are the antique-looking street lights. This always puts us in the holiday mood!

Christmas at Epcot

We wanted to see the new light show at Epcot so we went later in the day, just as it was getting dark. Which happens to be a great time to see that big golf ball they have out front! Some of the changes in the front area are not so great, but the golf ball looks amazing!

And Epcot's Christmas tree is the best on of all the Disney parks. It's way tall (around 60 feet) and completely covered in lights!

The new light show still takes place in the middle of the lake. Instead of the big globe that lit up and opened up, they now have a . . . thing. Not sure what it's really supposed to be. There is a big ring, surrounded by four screens. During the show each screen raises and lowers a big bar that sprays water. I honestly don't know what look they were aiming for; this just reminds me of those inflatable air dancers, waiving about.

But the fireworks were amazing! Big and beautiful. 

 Sometimes they lob one up almost impossibly high, and we all wait for the bang. When it explodes, everyone goes "Ooooo"

Camel rides in Leesburg!

 Leesburg always puts on a wonderful Christmas event. This year the children were able to sit on Santa's lap again, although Santa still had to wear a mask. And this year they added something new - camel rides!  Will I ride a camel? You bet! This guy was a sweetheart!

Christmas at the Magic Kingdom

It's time to start checking out the Disney World Christmas displays! Today we went to Magic Kingdom, where Main Street is all decked out, anchored by a huge tree. 

The fireworks here are lovely, but the star of the show is Cinderella's Castle. With amazing lights, it is transformed into a series of designs and characters, set to the music of Disney shows. 

CPC Volunteer Dinner

This week CPC hosted a special a dinner. Since this was to honor the church volunteers, Randy wanted it to be really, really special. In order to make this work, Randy suggested that the leaders serve the volunteers. Great idea! Since the leaders would now be working that night, they had a nice meal out, where nobody from the church (except Randy and me) needed to work on it. Then it was time to get down to creating the Volunteer dinner.

Randy worked on this for days. Besides ordering and picking up all the product, he spent untold hours doing the prep work - seasoning, dicing, slicing, puree-ing - everything that could be done beforehand was. Then, on the day of the dinner, he put it all together:

• Sparkling flavored drinks
• Shrimp Cocktails
• Smoked Salmon Canapé
• Cucumber slices with herbed cream cheese topped with tomato or olives
• Bruchetta with tomatoes and cheese
• Sweet Sensation Salad with Candied Pecans  Bacon, Goat Cheese and Raspberry Vinaigrette
• Prime rib with au jus and onion straws or Chicken Cordon Blue with Dijan mustard sauce
• Mashed Potatoes
• Green Beans
• Crossants
• Cheese cake
• Red Velvet Cake

The day of the event we did a quick training of the leaders on how to serve, because Randy had something very special in mind. 

During the "Happy Hour" the servers walked around with "silver" trays full of Sparkling flavored drinks. We had enough for everyone, even though one of the servers dropped a tray of six glasses!

The servers put Shrimp Cocktails at every plate for the first course. 

Next the servers walked around with trays of appetizers: Smoked Salmon Canapés, Cucumber slices with herbed cream cheese topped with tomato or olives, and Bruchetta with tomatoes and cheese. Pretty and delicious!

Second Course: Sweet Sensation Salad with Candied Pecans, Bacon, Goat Cheese and Raspberry Vinaigrette; Randy did everything except milk the goat!

Time for the main course: either Prime Rib with au jus and onion straws or Chicken Cordon Blue with Dijan mustard sauce. These came with Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, and Croissants.

The logistics of serving all of this was tricky but Randy had it worked out beforehand. He made a seating chart of all the tables, who sat where, what they ordered, and how they wanted their Prime Rib done. Then he enlisted the help of Debbie (who had worked with him before) and they plated every dish according to what the guest had ordered. 

 We had the servers lined up in the kitchen, waiting for the plates. 

And as each plate was ready, it was handed off to a server. 

Because Randy was so organized in the kitchen, we could implement his service plan. The plates for an entire table were sent out together. The servers quickly arranged themselves behind the guests, then all six plates were presented simultaneously. 

Later a couple of servers wheeled dessert carts around to offer Cheesecake or Red Velvet Cake, and coffee. We got a lot of feedback about how special all this made them feel!

New Disney Rides!

The crowds are back in Disney! And there is a new ride at Epcot called Ratatouille. Like "Rise of the Resistance" over at Hollywood, it offers virtual queue for annual pass-holders (just for a few weeks, then the queue opens to everyone). Requests for the queue open up at 7 am and early bird Randy was able to get us into the 1pm - perfect! 

They anticipate long lines to get in, so they've filled the waiting area with some fun visuals.    

The ride is in buggy shaped like a big mouse, which moves through a big set that makes you feel as small as a rat. The visuals are 3-D and are lots of fun, (even though they don't photograph well). 

The next week we went to Hollywood and confirmed that the crowds are back there, too, so likely we won't be doing back-to-back on rides like Pandora for a while. And "Genie" is now active, where guest pay for a seat on the big rides. So for all the big rides, the non-Genie wait time is at least an hour. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! 

On the bright side, the parades are coming back. Hollywood had a parade with just one float but several characters including the Army guys from Toy Story. I wonder how long it took for them to learn to walk nicely with those big flat shoes?

We walked through the Star Wars section, where I noticed a lovely, full-scale TIE Eschelon - cool!

I was thinking that it was big enough to be a stage when, sure enough, out walked Kylo Ren and a couple of Stormtroopers. Kylo used to interact with guests but that doesn't happen any more (thanks, Covid). So he paced around the stage, rasping out vague threats and holding still for photos. 

This area is a bit short on rides but long on atmosphere. It's like walking around a big movie set, with my own handsome leading man!

A pretty good time to visit Disney

August and September have been pretty fun at Disney. The crowds are lower now so we are going twice a week, to enjoy everything before the crowds come back!

At the Magic Kingdom we could go anywhere we wanted: Big Thunder Mountain Coaster, Hall of Presidents, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Buzz Lightyear Ranger Spin, Under the Sea, Carousel of Progress, People Mover, and It's a Small World. We even went on the Tomorrowland Speedway; I've always wanted to go  but didn't want the long wait (glad I didn't wait a long time - it was not that good). 

The newly painted Cinderella Castle looks great to me, although Randy preferred it as it used to be. 

There are no meet-and-greets with Characters now. Characters stand behind a rail or go by in a carriage or boat, but children cannot hug them any more. So sad. There are no parades anymore, either; occasionally one float goes by with a few people clearing the way before it. 

Over at Animal Kingdom, Avatar is an amazing ride that usually has a line of almost 2 hours, so we don't go. This time the line was so short, one day we went on it twice!

The Lion King show is finally back, but with some changes. There are a lot less cast members because everyone has to be at least 6 feet apart. And the great acrobats who played the parts of monkeys are gone - too bad, they were the best part.

There are a lot of new babies this year.  In June a baby boy giraffe was born. He's already striding around the Savanah like he owns the place.

A new baby hippo was born  in July. She enjoys basking in the water but it's hard to get a photo of her, surrounded by her big family members. 

Just one day later a Western Lowland Gorilla had a baby girl! Now she can sometimes be seen playing in the straw next to her napping mother. 

Her dad was napping nearby, too.

And in January a baby White Rhino boy was born. He keeps close to his mama for now. 

Kilimanjaro Safari has benefited from the lower crowds - we are seeing more animals.

Even lionesses have shown up. They sleep between 16 and 20 hours a day so it's rare so see them, especially during the hot part of the day. 

Ar Epcot we got on Test Track, Soarin, Mission Space, and Frozen Ever After. The nightly fireworks change in October so we went in September to see the interim show before it is replaced. They are beautiful and long, but just fireworks - can't wait to see what's in store next. 

Over at Hollywood Studios the Beauty and the Beast show is back but, like the Lion King show, everyone has to stay 6 feet apart. That makes the scenes a lot thinner. 

Fortunately they haven't changed the Tower of Terror - it's still the best ride in any of the parks! 

And we finally got on the Rise of the Resistance! When it was a virtual queue, the queue always filled up too fast. Now you wait in line, and in the evening this month that was doable. It's a great combination of amazing graphics and visually stunning sets, starting with a phalanx of silent Storm Troopers. 

These guys are the First Order's version of Buckingham Palace guards - they just stand there. My very own rebel used them like a backdrop!

Next we got an inspirational greeting from a hologram of Rey, before boarding a passenger vehicle captained by a marvelous animatronic Lieutenant Bek. 

Our ship got shanghaied by the First Order but some fearless Resistance fighters freed us and sent us on a chase through First Order headquarters, including under some mighty AT-ATs. 

There are a lot of explosions but fortunately they take place outside, to be viewed from the safety of our safe. 

Good ride! Not worth standing in line for 2 hours, but since we didn't have to wait that long, we went on it twice!