I spent part of the day yesterday (New Year’s Eve) at the Magic Kingdom working a Cross-U shift. For those not familiar with this every so often, usually during peak periods, salaried cast members will be asked to work a shift in the parks to help out.  The exciting and sometimes intimidating part of this is that we have no idea what job we’ll be assigned until we show up for our shift. My assignment this year:  Popcorn stand at the Castle hub in the Magic Kingdom. I was in charge of filling the popcorn orders as they came in. It was pretty easy because there were only two size options – a small box or a souvenir bucket. Once our team got a flow going we were rockin!  I’m positive we were the best and most efficient popcorn stand in all the parks yesterday.

It was so much fun to see everyone at the parks having such a good time. At 4pm the cast started handing out the New Year’s Eve hats and horn blowers which quickly added to the buzz along Main Street.  If I had anyone to hang out with I might have just stayed at the park for the rest of the night to ring in the year. It seemed everyone was having a great time.

I feel very blessed going into 2010.  While I have few tight personal friendships, those that I have I cherish.  I am also grateful for the many wonderful people I work with and for those amazing people that I met through work (read: Moms Panelists and bloggers). Your support and encouragement means so much to me.  I appreciate everyone so much and wish you all the very best in the coming year.

For those that have asked – Jefferson is doing fine.  He cooperated so quickly I am actually stunned.  The boxer shorts lasted less than 24-hours.

Here’s where the lump was removed from his right hind leg.

Happy New Year to all!

A Friday evening at the Magic Kingdom in the fall makes for a very fun time. 

Add in Disney’s breath-taking holiday decorations and it gets even more spectacular. 

Add on to that -  a once-in-a-lifetime meeting of about 20 little princesses at a nighttime tea party under the glow of the amazing glistening Cinderella Castle with the newest Disney princess - Princess Tiana and it’s sure to be a wonderful night.

By wait – there’s one more add – bring on world famous Tyra Banks and her TV crew and – whoa!!

Just look at the face of the little girl behind Tyra looking up in awe of meeting both Princess Tiana and Tyra at the same time!

To piece it all together, Tyra Banks taped a segment for her talk show (The Tyra Banks Show)about Disney’s newest and first African American Princess – Princess Tiana.  (Tiana debuts on the big screen on Dec. 11 in the new Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog.) Tyra surprised three little girls on her show last week with a trip to Walt Disney World to meet Princess Tiana IN PERSON. 

The setting was as charming as you can imagine - a royal tea party at the base of Cinderella Castle, draped in lavish holiday lights with incredible desserts, hot cocoa, tea and punch.

Tyra was so wonderful with the girls. You could see that they truly looked up to her, not only because she’s tall (ha ha) but they were so excited to meet her.  And by the way, Tyra looked sensational!  Her hair was pulled back and she wore a button-down yellow tee paired with slender jeans topped off with tall red staccato 5-inch shoes. Way to go, girl!

The girls and their moms were waltzing with each other, laughing  and taking in every moment of this beautiful night. 

This segment will air on Tyra’s show this Wednesday, Nov. 25.  Check your local listings for channel and time. 

I have to thank the wonderful and talented Leigh Caldwell who shot almost all these photos and allowed me to use them.  She is a wonderful person and not only a good photographer but also a great writer. She authors the blog “Theme Park Mom.com” that, as the name alludes, focuses on theme park destinations and families.

I also want to give a shout out to my other bloggers who attended the Tyra-Tiana evening – Lorraine from “Ask Wifey” – who is also pictured above dancing with her daughter; and Stefanie of Mommymusings.com who I met about a year ago at Disney. They have wonderful blogs and I encourage you to stop by and check them out.