I was truly blessed this year with many places to see and experience. In October I was able to go to Illinois, a place that I don't believe I have ever visited in the past. On the way I sat next to a very nice elderly gentlemen that served our country in WW II as a Navy man. He mentioned upon sitting down that his wife was sitting towards the front of the plane, I asked if he would like me to switch with her so they could be together, his reaction was priceless. " Are you kidding me, I just got a free upgrade by sitting next to you. I have been married to her for so long that a little time apart will do us good." I cracked up over that and we preceded to talk the entire trip and he shared with me his long career as an accountant and also his long marriage to his wife, a very very long marriage. Come to find out, his wife's dad worked with Walt Disney at the very beginning of Walt's career in making cartoons. How cool is that, somehow Disney is always part of my conversations :)
After we landed he introduced me to his wife and asked for my contact information, I have not heard from him yet but I do not doubt that in the future I will. It just goes to show you how reaching out to your fellow man and talking to them you can take a long plane flight into a eye opening experience.
While in Illinois I made so many friends from all over the world. My biggest lesson of that week was.....we may live in a big world but its only as big as you make it. I shared beers with people from Texas, Denmark, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and many others. I learned so much that my outlook towards all these countries really has changed to be more positive. Besides when a person from the Netherlands takes one look at me and says I must be Scandinavian it makes my heart skip a beat. I can not tell you how often I am told I am Irish, which I don't recall seeing any Irishmen in my genealogy.
The last big trip of the year was to......DISNEY WORLD. In case you do not know it, I love Disney and all that it represents. Hope, Make believe, dreams and an escape from reality. I am very fortunate to have a friend who works at Disney and is willing to share her Pixie Dust with me and my boys. Lisa is truly the definition of a true friend to me and to my boys, without her there is no way I could take the boys as often as I do. This year we were there to see the grand opening of the new Fantasy Land, and wow is it incredible. My favorite ride was Dumbo. On our first trip to Disney six years ago that was John's favorite ride and in years past the line was always so long it was near impossible to get on it again. This year though, the line was non existent and I was honored to ride it again with him. He may be nine now, but to me it was going back to when he was three and it was our first time. And for Mathew, this was the first year that I gave him more independence. He wanted to do a ride there is no way I could do, Mission to Space, the orange card style, puke-o- rama if I rode it. He road it two times all on his own and he felt like such a grown up when he walked off the ride and it made me proud knowing I could trust him to be responsible and to behave. Oh and one more thing, I got to meet my princess, Merida from Brave. It just goes to show you can never be too old to act like a child and be soooo happy to just meet a princess.
So as the year comes to a close I look back and think about all the wonderful places and people I have met and I wonder how can I top it? I don't know yet, but I am sure the man upstairs still has some great trips for me to go on and even more people to meet. I hope you will come back and enjoy them along with me.
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