Christmas in Disney Part VI: Another day in Magic Kingdom

On our very last Disney day, we headed over to Magic Kingdom again. Once again, we got there early and headed over to the new Beauty and the Beast experience because the line was crazy long all day last time. I called it an "experience" because I'm not sure what else to call it...it's not really a ride or show. You go into Belle's house and end up in her dad's workshop. He has an enchanted mirror in there so he can see Belle whenever he wants. The Disney worker tells it to go back to the night when Belle and beast fell in love. All of the sudden the mirror glows and stretches until it becomes a doorway. It was awesome. So you step through and then you are in the castle. It really becomes more about little kids here, but it's fun anyway. You talk to the wardrobe and she explains that they are getting Belle ready for her dinner and dance with beast. She assigns people in the group to reenact their love story. To decide who got to play her, she made everyone sing out her big long opera note...and of course Jordan got picked. It was awesome. Kenz and I also got to participate (okay, okay, I kind of insisted...). After that, they take you into a room where you meet Belle in her gown and she is just about to go see the Beast for their date. She talks with everyone and then you get to take pictures with her.

When I took Chandler up, his head was kind of blocking her from the chin down because of the way I was holding him. She was playing with him and everyone in the audience was cracking up. I thought it was just because he was super cute, but come to find out he was attacking some flowers on her dress that were right on her chest and she wasn't just holding his hands to play with her, she was trying to keep from being groped. Apparently one guy in the audience yelled out something like "that's my boy!" It was super embarrassing after I found out because she was probably thinking "why the heck is this kid's mom not getting him off of me?!" Nice.

Here's where he spots the flowers.....and tries to rip them off her chest while she nonchalantly attempts to hold his arms back.

At least one we got one good shot:

Next we went for a ride on the carousel. Despite all the times I've been at Disney, I think this is the first time I have ever ridden it. It always has a really long line and it's something you can do anywhere so we never really worried about it. But since we were so early, there was no wait and we decided to go for it.

(I had to put 2 because I think his face is kind of hilarious in the second one. Love those squishy, kissy cheeks.)

We spent the rest of the day re-riding some of our favorites.

Kenzie's beloved Thunder Mountain Railroad:

Buzz Lightyear (Dad's face is awesome):

Winnie the Pooh:

Lindsey and Nick took the kids on a kiddie coaster. Even Tanner loved it!

And Chandler continued to enjoy his naps:

One of the rides we hadn't been able to do a few days before was Space Mountain. Everybody went ahead while Dad, Mom, Tanner, and I stayed behind with the kids. I thought Kenzie was going to freak out because it's dark in that ride and pretty intense, but she went crazy over it. She thought it was even better than Thunder Mountain and wanted to ride it again immediately! Funniest kid ever. So Josh and I went and took her with us. We made one last visit to it later that night, too, with a bunch of us.

After knowing what the streets are like when a parade comes around from last time, we made sure and got a spot on the parade route nice and early. The parade was adorable!

Once it had passed, we quickly headed over to the castle where they put on a spectacular show. They projected images onto the castle while playing amazing music. Like at one point it becomes the Wreck-it Ralph building and you see him climbing up and punch out the windows. Then it becomes the frozen castle and snow swirls around on it while the music blasts "Let it Go." It went though dozens of movies and it was incredible. Then they put on the world's most fantastic fireworks display. And they still do one of my favorite thins from when I was a kid: there is a zipline running from a top tower down to a lower building and Tinkerbell goes flying out the window.

Leaving that night was so, so, so sad. None of us were ready for it to be over.

We packed up the next morning and headed back to Myrtle Beach.

This was an amazing Christmas that we will always remember! And it was Chandler's first Christmas, so that's going to be kind of hard to top...