Thirty Days of Thanks

Well, here we are at the end of the month. It's been quite easy to find things to be thankful for, and most days I have to limit it to just one. Today I have two. :)

Today I am going to say Disney World and their Armed Forces Salute. They are giving one FREE 5-day ticket to military and up to five $99 5-day tickets to family members. (Since John's not here, we can get the family members tickets. The offer expires the day John is supposed to get home. You KNOW we would have waited until John got home, otherwise!) Disney has done this at least one other time since September 11th. I know that part of it is just business--the tourist industry's been hit very hard since then, and Disney World was thought to be a target of that dreadful day. But the cast members are so appreciative when they know that we are military. When we came in September 2002, when John was on his first trip, the cast members (and the characters especially) gave the boys such good attention and told us THANK YOU for what their Daddy was doing.

One I remember in particular was Captain Hook. We bought a Mickey t-shirt for characters to sign for John and they all did. Every last one of them. But Captain Hook gave the boys a special thrill when he pantomimed to his "keeper" (remember the characters who don't show their faces can't talk to the public) that he had seen their Daddy when he pulled into port overseas. My, you shoulda seen that 10 year old and 6 year old light up! And I loved it, too.

Chip and Dale cried because they missed John, and Goofy saluted. Really nice. And every single one of them signed John's shirt. We saw another guy ask them to sign his shirt because he'd seen us get the shirt signed, and he was told, "No way. Theirs is special--it's for their dad who's overseas."
Also thankful for the funds to do this--it was totally impromptu yesterday. We did not have a reservation (they are hard to get!) and we just walked in and they had room. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. And right next to Luci was another little girl, also from China, who lives in Memphis! I had a very nice conversation with her parents. Luci chose Tiana for her character, and she has that newest Disney Princess' outfit on.

Luci and her Minions