Disney at night, is there anything more magical?
First ride of the night = It's a Small World, Holiday Edition
Small World has been Jenny's favorite ride for as long as I can remember. Beth and I got her those adorable Small World ears for her birthday one year, they look so cute on her!
I have taken so many pictures of this holiday overlay, I can never not take pictures while sailing through, its just all so magical I feel the intense need to document it every single time.
Oh 2020, it seemed so excited at the time .... We had no idea it was going to be the worst year ever.
I feel like I haven't ever seen this adorable, over the top gingerbread house before! Maybe taking pictures every time I ride isn't a bad thing if I am discovering new things!
After small world, we headed over to New Orleans Square to see our other favorite holiday overlay, The Haunted Mansion. It was also time for the fireworks, which we opted not to see because we had seen the holiday show two years ago in Disney World and we were only in the parks for two days and we didn't want to waste 1/3 of one of those days reserving a seat for the show. This was the crowd that showed up for the firework show, I'm soooo glad we decided not to try and find a seat with that many people.
Also, I am typing this in July of 2020 (I'm so behind in blogging) and it's crazy to think we took things like this giant crowd for granted back in 2019. Now a days, in the middle of a pandemic, the parks would never look like this. Life is so weird right now and I miss the days of winding through a huge crowd like this, who would have ever thought we would miss something like that?
We caught a couple glimpses of the Rivers of America show with the castle fireworks in the background on our walk to New Orleans.
Jens wanted to grab a couple bao buns on our way to the Haunted Mansion, they were just so good we needed to get them one last time!
We were also excited to get a couple peppermint beignets and a cranberry mint julep from the Julep Bar. These peppermint beignets are my favorite, they have just the right amount of peppermint and are just so delicious. The cranberry mint julep had the strangest flavor. I always have high hopes for the juleps and they let me down every single time! I don't know why I continue to get so excited for them.
A Haunted Mansion Christmas!
We got a pack of dynamite as our Christmas gift, awe, so thoughtful!
Our very last stop in the park was at my favorite place, Jolly Holiday. In my opinion, a trip to Disneyland is not complete without stopping at this adorable bakery, they have the best treats in the entire park.
There were so many goodies we wanted to try here!
This Santa hat macaron was possibly the cutest holiday cookie ever, and it tasted superb.
Look at all that peppermint chocolate filling!!
The classic. My all time Favorite. The Raspberry rose macaron.
We also really wanted to try the Thanks-mas sandwich, which is basically a thanksgiving meal on bread. Turkey, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce, the works. Obviously it was delicious, but nothing will beat the Holiday Turkey sandwich at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney.
Walking back to our hotel, we got to enjoy the magical snow on Main Street.
I always like to walk through the stores instead of the street because it gets soooo crowded out there. Plus we get to see all the cute merchandise. Disney had just released a live action version of Lady and the Tramp on their new streaming service Disney Plus. So there was all sorts of adorable merchandise for that movie.
I was so nervous I wasn't going to get to enjoy one of these tasty gingerbread Micky's this trip, they were sold out of them at Jolly Holiday! But Candy Palace came to my rescue and they were restocking them as we walked by, so I popped in and grabbed one to eat in bed that night. They are the best gingerbread cookies, they are soft and chewy, with the right amount of spice and a hint of chocolate.
The churro cart at the top of main street had our very last churro flavor, caramel coconut. The caramel sauce was delicious, I would have just drank that straight from the cup. The coconut flavor was nonexistent, even though it was covered in coconut flakes, how does that happen?
The next morning we got to sleep in a little bit, before having to pack up. After we checked out, we headed to IHOP for a leisurely breakfast. Today was Jenny's actual birthday, and she loves eating at IHOP but rarely gets the chance to with her family, so it was a special birthday treat for her.
They had the cutest holiday hot chocolate.
There was a balloon artist going around the tables making that most amazing and elaborate balloon characters. I was entranced and so wanted one, luckily we had V, so I offered to get one for her, secretly wanting the experience of watching him make one for myself. V choose to have him make Princess Rapunzel. Can you even handle how adorable she is?? and how magical that golden braid is? And she lasted a long time, I went over to the madison's house like two weeks later, and Rapunzel was still around, she was a little deflated, but she still looked pretty good. If you are ever at the Disney IHOP, I highly recommend getting one of these magical balloons.
And on that fun, magical, and adorable note, we said goodbye to our favorite place and flew home. I am so glad and thankful we got to go on this fun sisters get away, Disneyland has now been closed since March, and there isn't any hope of it opening up anytime soon. I look forward to the wonderful day of when life will return to a more normal state, and we can safely go back to the parks and enjoy their magic and happiness again. Until then, I will cherish the memories we made on this fun trip.
