Adding to the list...

Remember when you were 13 years old and you found out that Michael Jackson was coming to town? Ok, so it was to the city 6 hours away, but your dad agreed to take you if you stood in line and got tickets? And there was only a small block of tickets sent to the sporting goods store at the mall in your tiny town, because it was, well, a tiny town comparatively. And so you stood in line, shaking with anticipation! Would you get the tickets?? Would you? Would you be holding Michael Jackson tickets? Or would it all just have been for naught?

Ok, so flash forward 25 years. Technology may be different. But I sat on the computer after the kids were in bed trying to pick up dinner reservations.

Not for the French Laundry. Or Chez Pannise.

Nope. I sat there trying to get reservations for dinner with princesses.

At Disneyworld.

Because I know my daughter would flip.

Yes, I had lunch reservations, but good friends we will be traveling with had coveted dinner reservations they were looking to unload in favor of other options they lucked into. Making the princess dinner my coveted goal. We timed it all. We sat on the phone. And I hit "Search for a Table" over and over and over and over.

Then it happened.

And we cheered.

Thanks for sharing that experience with me. (And yes, when I was 13 I did see Michael Jackson in concert. All five of the Jacksons appeared to be less than an inch tall from our nosebleed seats reserved for the Casper, Wyoming block at the top of Mile High Stadium in Denver. I don't normally readily admit to this. It's your special day.)

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I have this huge list of things that before I had kids I swore I would never do... and it seems I just keep adding to that list. I mentioned a few months ago the main one of recent... Disneyworld.

We are well onto our countdown to liftoff. There was a little trauma last week when I realized I had miscounted the days way back when we were on something like 47 sleeps until DisneyWorld. Then last week the numbers got smaller and I realized I was off by a day.

Me: "Sorry Leif, we are really 15 days to DisneyWorld, not 14."

Leif: "WHAT! NO! You are wrong! We counted all this time!"

It was a rough day, with a bit of arguing. Yes, mommy makes mistakes on occasion.

I suppose it could be said that I have embraced this vacation completely.

In typical NM ding dong fashion, I realized last week when I was mapping my hotel that "oh, look, it looks like it is pretty close to SeaWorld." Then I found my hotel online to see if they happened to have shuttle buses and found out that I am actually staying at the Fairfield Inn AT SEAWORLD.

Ok, so that Friday that I have to work a bit, AB and the kids will have an easy source of entertainment at their toes. Love how that works.

I have the hotel booked, park tickets bought. You might think that sounds about normal... but then the list continues... and this is where those lists of things I would never do comes back to haunt me. Covet the reservations. What reservations can I score?

Dinner with the Princesses on Saturday
Pirates and Pals Firework cruise booked
Animal Kingdom Tusker House lunch booked
Finding Nemo musical reserved seating booked
Dinner with friends at Boma booked
Harry Potter Land all scouted out
Dinner at Boatwrights (the old boat making shop) is the special treat for AB.

Leif in typical OCD fashion has become all obsessed with Harry Potter Land and the website. He plans to go to Olivanders first to get his wand (with his own money) and has asked that we bring the special pencil (an eyeliner pencil) to draw his lightning bolt scar on his forehead (or two-head if you are Skadi).

It will be quite an adventure for the family!