Morgan Family: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas

Several months ago we purchased special tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party. It was the very first one of the season, and I was SO glad that we would be there to see Disney transformed into a winter wonderland! It was really what I had most looked forward to about our trip. My mom volunteered to keep Layla that night, seeing as it would be a really late night. This was a huge help!

Danny, Eli, and I got to Magic Kingdom around 5:00. We rode several rides we hadn't had a chance to previously in the week, and just ate up our time with Eli! It was nice for all of us to be able to ride together, too. At 7:00, the park closed to the general public. Disney operates in a miraculous way! We were amazed at how well they transitioned everyone out of the park that didn't have tickets to the party that night. The party lasted from 7-midnight. We found ourselves a great spot in front of the castle early in the evening, and were able to see perfectly the Christmas show, parade, glow show, and fireworks. The parade was one of the best Christmas parades I've ever seen!

There were snow flurries falling all over, hot chocolate and cookies galore, and extra special guest character appearances. It was just as magical as we had anticipated. Our little guy had pure joy in his eyes all night, and THAT's what made it so perfect!

Layla wouldn't wear the Minnie ears we got her, so Eli insisted mommy wear them :).

Eli LOVED finally getting to ride the teacups with daddy. He's a much better spinner than the rest of us!

More Dumbo rides.

Another favorite was definitely the Buzz ride. Laser shooting fun! It turned into a major competition between mom & dad, and sadly, I lost.

The real deal Buzz was waiting for us when we got off the ride. Talk about a star struck child!

These two really hit it off. Buzz kept taking his hat off and had Eli laughing so hard. I know he'll never forget meeting one of his favorite characters!

We got our spot in front of the castle and waited for all of the shows to start.

Right after this show finished, it was time for the parade to start. We had a curb front spot, too. We got really lucky. Finding a good spot to watch the parade is NO easy task.

Again, this was just the best Christmas parade. Eli got to shake hands with a lot of the characters as they came past us.

After the parade was over, mommy and Eli made the trek to get more hot choc and cookies. We just barely made it back in time for the glow show and fireworks.

The turned the castle into a Christmas tree!

One of the sweetest memories from our whole trip was watching these fireworks together. We kept watching Eli's face, and it literally brought us to tears. Now we know why they called it the place where all your dreams come true!

I'm glad I was able to get this video, because Eli watches it over and over again.

After fireworks we were off to ride some more rides. Eli thought he was so cool to be out riding roller coasters at 10:00 at night!