Our first Visitor

In mid-December we had our first visitor in our new home!!! Our friend Leigh came down. We met Leigh while we were at WVU and she finished her DMA this past May. Although it was short visit we filled it with lots of good times, food and wine! On her first day we explored a little bit of Bonita Lake Park. 

That night we introduced her to pizza fondue and stay up late just chatting :)

The next day it was off to explore the Merrehope and F.W. Williams Houses. I had found them on a website and all I knew going into it was they were historical homes that were decorated for Christmas. Our tour guide did a great job and the homes really were incredible. Each year they pick a different theme for the Christmas Trees and this year it was famous authors of Mississippi. While we certainly knew some of them others came as a surprise. I'm hoping to try and incorporate some Mississippi authors into my reading this year.

Gone with the Wind Tree

The story behind each house was amazing. The Merrehope house at one point was a boarding house. To make it work as such they put up various walls to section the house off into smaller apartments. When the historical society bought the house and took down the walls they found many columns and fireplaces perfectly preserved.

Mardi Gras Tree

This is actually a piano but it needs some work before it can be playable. 

The Tree done by the Meridian Symphony Orchestra

 One of the rooms in the house is set up as a bridal room as there are weddings which occur on the property.

A tree themed after The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

One aspect that both homes shared was plenty of historical pieces, including children's toys and dolls. There are of course many stories of these homes being haunted as well. Leigh and I are pretty certain we know where the spirits hang out.....

If you think this is creepy just wait until we get to the F.W. Williams house

Tree themed after the Miss Firecracker Contest, a play by Beth Henley

After we finished touring the Merrehope house it was time to head over to the F.W. Williams house. This house was built in 1886 by Frank W. Williams for his bride. They lived in the house for their entire lives and upon their passing Frank's sister continued to reside in the house until her death. Then the house passed immediately to the historical society, meaning that this house was incredibly well preserved. All the furniture/fabric, etc... are original and in amazing condition. Sadly the outside of the house was severely damaged by Katrina but they are working to raise money to restore everything.

Music was an important part of the household. 

This house contained the first elevator in the state of Mississippi. 

The stained glass front doors were breathtaking. 

Love the vintage Christmas ornaments

and I'm home!

Notice how well the bed linens are preseved

Straight out of a horror film......

Sadly that night we had to hand Leigh off to the Perna's (who we also know from WVU) in Jackson. It was such a wonderful time and nice to finally have room to host visitors!!

Christmas in Meridian

We thoroughly enjoyed our first Christmas Season in Meridian. The first order of business was setting up and decorating our Christmas Tree. This is the first time in 3 years we've had enough room to set it up and the first year ever we didn't have to set it up in the Kitchen (ah, the joys of city living...).

This also marks the first year we had a fireplace area to decorate!!!

Also we were able to appreciate some of the decorations in downtown Meridian when we went to see the Peppermint Pops Symphony Concert.

Tree inside the Riley Center which is a beautiful hall.

Tree in front of the Municipal Building. It was actually set to music and had a whole light show. 

Back at home we also enjoyed a special treat that we imported from Disney!

Another Holiday show we were able to see was the Singing Christmas Tree performed at Highland Baptist Church. This was my first singing Christmas Tree experience and it was pretty spectacular.

Good first Christmas season, looking forward to many more to come!!!

A Disney Thanksgiving

There have been many perks to Kris's new job and one of the best so far has been the band's trip to Disney over this past Thanksgiving. The EMCC Marching Band was selected to perform in Magic Kingdom on Thanksgiving Day as part of the Electric Light Pre-Parade. The school managed to find room in the budget to fund a trip to Disney for the entire band plus spouses of staff. This meant Kris and I got a free trip! Although we only had 3 full days in the parks we did manage to spend time in each park and do things we hadn't done in May. Because we did some park hopping I'm just going to go park by park instead of trying to do this chronologically.

However first we had to get to Florida! The school hired charter buses and on the way down one of the bus drivers decided to get in the spirit of the trip...

We stayed at the Rosen Plaza Hotel which was already decorated for the holidays by the time we arrived. 

View from our hotel window

Arriving at Disney

         One of the advantages to staying off-site is that everyday you are in the parks you get to drive under the "Welcome to Walt Disney World" sign! 

Animal Kingdom

Due to the shorter nature of the trip we were only able to spend half a day in Animal Kingdom. Given the fact that you can fit all the other 3 parks inside Animal Kingdom, and that Kris and I are huge animal fans, we definitely didn't get a chance to see everything. However since we had just been there in May we knew which attractions were the most important. One of the coolest parts about this particular trip was that the parks were all decorated for the holidays. It was neat to compare the different decorations and it was a fabulous way to kick off the holiday season!

Each park has their own large tree. The Animal Kingdom tree was my favorite. 

Eeyore!!!!!

We started the morning off with the Kilimanjaro Safari.

On our way.....at least we were in the right country.

After the Safari we also made sure to cover both the Maharajah Jungle Trek and the Pangani Forest Trail.

If you look closely there is a hippo in there among the fish. 

Even King Louie got in the holiday spirit!

For lunch we ate at Yak & Yeti and managed to squeeze in a trip on the Dinosaur ride before heading to the next park. 

Magic Kingdom

On Thanksgiving we got to spend the day in Magic Kingdom. Although the crowds were crazy the weather was perfect (as you can probably tell by our outfits!) and it was a beautiful way to spend the holiday. 

After a stroll down Main Street we headed off to one of our favorite attractions, Enchanted Tales with Belle. The last time we were here Kris was chosen to be a guard, an experience that became one of the highlights from the trip. This time although we weren't cast in the story, we still had a chance to meet my favorite princess!!

Continuing on our character quest we also took time to meet the Mad Hatter/Alice and Merida.

The only complete ride overlay that Disney World gets for Christmas is the Jingle Cruise. We took the Jungle Cruise back in May and so we were excited to see what changes the holiday season brought.

On our way to lunch we caught part of the Move It! Shake It! Dance Party.

In our continuing goal to explore all the various restaurants in Disney, we chose to eat lunch at Tony's Town Square Restaurant, themed after Lady and the Tramp. 

A picture of the front of our menu

Not sure Lady and the Tramp needed the hats and scarfs as it was 80 degrees outside. 

After lunch we hit another favorite, The Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. The show is always funny and we highly recommend it! Following the Laugh Floor we also caught most of the Festival of Fantasy Parade. This is my all time favorite Disney parade and it never fails to produce tears. Thanksgiving was no exception.

We also took time to ride Pirates of the Caribbean as it had undergone a renovation since May. All I can say is the poor dog..... Anyways we also made sure to meet Mickey in the Town Square Theater. This Mickey is by far the best one to meet as he can actually talk to you. During our visit we ended up chatting about the Haunted Mansion ride when Mickey decided we needed to pose like the hitchiking ghosts.

Although I didn't get any good pictures we stopped and watched the Flag Retreat. This is a daily ceremony at Magic Kingdom and it was very well done. Of course Disney always hires top notch performers so the brass and the singers made the ceremony very touching.

By this point Kris had to go meet with the band, so I took off to spend sometime seeing the various castle shows until the parade. I was lucky enough to make it in time to see Elsa light up the castle for the evening.

If you look closely you can see Olaf, Anna, Kristoff and Elsa

After the light up I stuck around and saw Dream Along with Mickey which was super cute and way cool since it was dark outside.

After the shows it was time to get in place for the parade. The band definitely got top billing as they were part of the Electrical Pre-Parade, meaning that the streets were already lined with people waiting for the Electrical Light Parade. They did a great job and I heard people around me singing along! As I was only working with the camera on my phone I couldn't get any good photos but I managed to salvage a few...

After the Parade we headed back to hotel for hors d'oeuvres and a dance party. 

Hollywood Studios

Although large chunks of Hollywood Studios are currently closed for construction we still managed to redo some of our favorites from May, meet some new characters and see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. Seeing the Osborne lights was probably the overall highlight of the trip because not only are they incredible, but sadly this is the last year for them. Because of the major changes coming to Hollywood Studios Disney has announced that this is the light's final year. I felt so lucky that we got a chance to experience them at least once. 

Santa Goofy!!!

I loved that Hollywood Studios has this beautiful Nativity set up. 

Yes, Buzz is as uncomfortable to hug as he looks....

Besides seeing the lights the second coolest part of the day was catching CharacterPalooza. This is a random character meet and greet where they bring out a selection of characters that also appear in the Fantasmic Show. The day we were there they happened to bring out Pinocchio and Geppetto! I'm not sure my smile could have been any wider.

We also ate at the Brown Derby. This was our only restaurant "re-do" from our May trip.

Finally it was time to see the lights! Unfortunately I underestimated the scope and crowds so we didn't have as much time there as we would have liked but at least we saw them at all! No pictures or videos truly do the lights justice but we hope you get a little glimpse of how magnificent they were...

Star Wars themed window

These stockings contain the names of the Osborne Family members. 

EPCOT

During our final day on the trip we had a chance to spend some time in EPCOT.  I don't think I could ever get tired of seeing the ball....

Our first stop was the Seas with Nemo so we could see the animals and go to Turtle Talk with Crush.

Manatee!

Dolphin during a training session

In the name of history we also stopped to see the Captain E.O. show. This was because only a few weeks later Disney would retire the movie permanently. It was a great trip back to the 1980s!

Then it was time for our trip around the world showcase to appreciate the various Christmas decorations.

Add this to the list of one of my favorite sites!!

Christmas tree outside the U.S. Pavilion

For a meal we ate at Marrakesh in the Morocco pavilion. The entertainment there was a belly dancer and musicians.

We also got to see the first night of the Holiday Illuminations show. This is just the regular Illuminations show with an extended ending.

Sadly after Illuminations it was time to head to the buses and start our return to Mississippi. It was an amazing trip and we can't wait for the next one!!