Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had lovely Christmas and New Year (or whatever you were celebrating…Or just really awesome Friday!). The Trip Report posts stopped a little before I expected them to, I thought I had them scheduled until Jan. 3rd, but it was Dec 3rd. Whoops! Sorry about that. I will go back to regular(ish) ones ASAP. 

 But first thing's first, and by far the most exciting news of the festive season…

WE ARE GETTING A PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't had a dog for the last 5 1/2 years, since my first dog Sassi passed away at the grand old age of 13. Here he is:


My puppy! With 13yo me.


With his beloved teddy bear. We took it with us when we went to collect him from the breeder, and it never left his side for the rest of his life (even after that, actually, because they cremated it with him). When we had to have him put to sleep, the vetinary nurse remembered how much he loved his bear and how he used to sleep with it, and tucked it under his paw when she tucked him up on the table under his blanket. Broke my heart all over again.


Gorgeous boy!

For a long time I didn't want another one, then I did and we couldn't afford one, then our work schedules weren't compatible with a pet (yay for responsible pet parenting, however miserable it makes you at the time to be sensible!)…The list went on. Well, now we are in a better place financially and work-wise, and our new fur baby will be coming home with us at the end of January/early February!


The white one is ours!

We have been looking to adopt for months, even before our Disney trip, but the area we live in is pretty much all Staffordshire Bull Terriers, or some mix thereof, German Shepherds or other large breeds in the rescue centres, and our house and garden just aren't big enough for a large dog. So, we made the choice to buy instead.

Speaking of buying…I had little Disneystore.com shopping spree before Christmas. I thought I would try and do a haul video. Well. That ended abruptly…

Yup, 9 seconds before I got stopped. :S That went well! My second try got a little further!

I apologise if my shaky camerawork makes you queasy! Fortunately you don't have to experience it for long! I did have a very good reason for stopping the filming though (no, not because I am terrible at it): Disney called! I was so shocked to see a Florida number pop up on my phone (which I was filming with) that I nearly dropped it!

When we were away we decided to collect autographs for a friend of ours who is too ill to travel. She adores Disney, so we thought we'd take some magic home for her. Well, we decided to go one better than that, and had a few of our new friends say hello!


Everyone we asked made such wonderful messages on the spur of the moment that I thought they deserved some special praise for their amazing work, so I wrote an email to Disney, including the video URL. The phone call was from a lovely lady at Disney, calling to let me know that they were able to track down everyone in my video, show it to them and their supervisors and tell them how wonderful they are!  She was getting teary watching the video again on the phone with me! She also let me know that she had passed on my compliments about Anthony who checked us in at CBR too, which was good to know.

So as the haul video failed, here are some photographs instead:


Bernard and Bianca!! I loved The Rescuers when I was little (all together now… #R-E-S-C-U-E, Rescue Aid Societyyyyyyy…#) so when I saw this ornament online before our trip, I had to have it. Well, I saw it, didn't buy it, and remembered later that I wanted it. Story of my holiday shopping!! It's a little heavy for the tree, that Devil's Eye is solid, but I have a nice ornament hook it will go on.



My favourite calendar! *SPOILER ALERT* this is the one we ended up buying for my Grandparents. Flicking through the pictures with them when we gave it to them, I decided I needed one too! I love that the gang are wearing their Star Wars attire for May (May The Fourth be with you!). We are big celebrators of the Jedi holidays in our house. Fun Fact: My husband decided to wait until we were sat outside the vicarage waiting to go in and speak to the reverend about planning our wedding to tell me that he had recorded himself as "Jedi" in the religion space on the recent census form. Fortunately that did not hinder our wedding plans!! But ever since we have joked about May 4th being his religious holiday.


How wonderful are these keys?! I plan on hanging it in a box frame by the door, with a photograph from our trip.


Love it. Wish I'd ordered more!


My Mickey Santa hat! I haven't managed to wear it yet, as it's VERY warm! Hats off (pun totally intended) to the people who make it through an entire MNSSHP wearing one of these bad boys. They are seriously cosy!


My GORGEOUS tree skirt!! I fell in love with this at the Christmas shop in Magic Kingdom, but it was so heavy I daren't buy one there and try to get it home. Also, by waiting until I got home and mail ordering it, John had forgotten how much it cost. 


I also ordered this little fella! Wow, his ticking is LOUD!! Like, you can hear it over the TV level of loud. I love him though. Actually, the one in the video is my second Cogsworth.

The first one that I unpacked with this haul was damaged, his glass was cracked. It wasn't much, but it was enough that it would have bugged me no end if I kept him like that. I emailed Disney to find out how I went about returning him, and what their policy was on import duty (I paid 20% of the total cost including shipping to get them through customs). They replied to say the new one was on his way, duty free, and to pass the old one along to a charity to spread the Disney magic!!! Instead of just giving him to a charity shop, I listed him on eBay, so he went to someone who absolutely adores Disney, and 100% of the proceeds (£72) went to our local children's hospital charity. Win-win, everyone's happy! 

Regular trip reports resume on Thursday! :)