disney annual passholder – Casa de Murphy

Merry Christmas, everyone! Our Christmas weekend was jammed packed and filled with so much love & laughter. Hope the same for you & yours.

We kicked things off last Friday with Liam’s belt promotion ceremony at Victory Martial Arts. At this time last year, this was actually our very 1st belt promotion ceremony for him, so that was pretty cool to now celebrate a full year of earning belts. He moved up to Raon / Lion Decided.

We are so thankful for the leadership & guidance from his instructor, Mr. Johnson!

Saturday afternoon, we were beyond excited to attend the Orlando Ballet Company’s performance of The Nutcracker at The Dr. Phillip’s Center. This was the 1st time any of us had been to a real ballet show, so this was really cool. It was also our 1st time at the Dr. Phillip’s Center.

I would say that there are no ‘bad’ seats in the entire theatre, but we chose great seats. Here’s a view from where we sat. We were on the 2nd tier balcony….it was a bit higher that I would have liked & honestly made me a little nervous at first ….but we loved it!

The show was stunning & amazing! We were all enchanted & I would say this is definitely a new Christmas tradition for us. Liam’s favorite part was the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (2nd set of pics below). He also loved the Mouse King. Pictures weren’t permitted during the show, but here’s a few gorgeous shots posted from the Company’s social media.

Photo Credits: Michael Cairns ; Orlando Ballet Company

Liam chose the Mouse King nutcracker as his souvenir from the show. We put him up at home next to the nutcracker I have from my Grammy ❤

Sunday was Christmas Eve and we woke up to find Mr. Elf with a present for Liam, as well as his good-bye letter, his magic key to leave out for Santa & the reindeer food to put out that evening. Liam was very much so looking forward to hugging him for a few minutes, as we remembered he got to do that today.

Christmas Eve dinner was at the Bengel’s. We had Turducken ….a combo of Turkey, Duck & Chicken. It was surprisingly delish! It was a great evening with this group. Love them!

A little bit of SnapChat fun …..

When we got home, we got cookies & milk out for Santa …..

Christmas morning! Santa came ….excitement in the air 🙂

Yah, it’s the ROBLOX set I wanted 😉

LEGOS were a big part of what Santa brought. Liam is very into them right now (so is Daddy…lol). He was shocked to see he also got the LEGO Dimensions game for the PlayStation.

The aftermath…..his favorite was his skateboard & pads .

We knew a while back that it would end up just being us three for Christmas dinner. So, I booked us dinner at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had eaten breakfast there during our stay for Liam’s birthday & loved it. I knew dinner would be great. It’s a buffet restaurant & the food is sooo tasty! Not to mention how much we love the resort!

The Christmas decorations were gorgeous!

Dinner was delicious! It was a mix of traditional menu items, like prime rib, mashed potatoes & sweet potatoes, as well as African-themed dishes like kokonut rice, seafood gumbo, hummus & flatbread, plantain crisps, and couscous. The desserts were Christmas themed, too. So yummy!

After dinner, we walked around the property & looked at the animals. It looked like it was dinner time for them, as well. The giraffes were super close to the lookout area out back, and there were two babies with the mama. It was awesome!

After that, we wandered about & looked around. In another area, they were having a s’mores roast. Despite being so full from dinner, still, we had to partake. It was too fun to pass up! 🙂

We told him to stand still so we could take his pic & this is the pose we got …lol! What a little ham!

This was the sweet card Liam made us in extended day this year ….such a treasure ❤

It’s been a great Christmas season this year, and we are so blessed. Love this little family of mine.

Until next time, friends!

For Christmas, we were beyond excited to get annual passes to Disney!! Santa brought Liam the news & we shared that HERE. While we have made one-day trips here & there to the parks over the years, this is honestly the 1st time we have ever held annual passes. It’s made both Stephen & I feel like little kids, ourselves 🙂

Those who are familiar with the annual passholder program know that there are several different tiers for the passes with various different blackout dates, benefits, etc. — We opted for the Gold passes, which have just two different weeks of blackout dates throughout the year and no water park admission (which is okay for us). So exciting that parking is included (that, alone, saves $20 a visit) and the Photopass Memory Memory Maker. Oh my goodness — We LOVE this Photopass feature and use it SO SO much! First, it is fantastic to be able to snag a quick family picture and the convenience of having the Photopass photographers just immediately scan it to download to your magicband is awesome! I can then save it right to the pictures on my phone. LOVE! Second, the Character Meet & Greets! We are obsessed! We have gotten some of the cutest pictures …and again, FREE downloads to your magicband! Liam also loves to get their autographs filled up in his book.

When our passes were 1st activated, we had to wait until the 1st week in January, as we were in one of those small blackout windows due to Christmas. However, once we had the greenlight, we were like kids in a candy shop! I think we went every weekend for that 1st month 🙂 ….Mickey Mouse was our 1st Character Meet & Greet. This one is from Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. We were blown away when we saw that he spoke and interacted!! So cool!!

In January, we also visited Animal Kingdom & got our 1st taste of magic shots. This is Pascal from Tangled on little man’s head ….LOL! I haven’t been too good with asking for many of these yet, so definitely have these on my list for future pictures…

Russell from Up …..

Safari Donald also at Animal Kingdom ……

In Epcot, we met Baymax!

We also met Mickey (in a different outfit this time….more classic looking), Minnie & Goofy 🙂

We found Daisy near Spaceship Earth. She kissed Liam & made him blush …loved it! ❤

In February, we made our 1st trip to Hollywood Studios. We skipped the end of night fireworks & instead, went to meet Kylo Ren from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We were just a little bit bummed because they said no one from the First Order signs autographs BUT at least we got a cool pic. It was serious business time with this guy! Haha!

Chewbacca!

In March, we went back for some more Hollywood Studios fun… After some face painting, we ran into Green Army Man from Toy Story 🙂

So excited to find Moana! …she was so nice 🙂

Buzz & Woody from Toy Story ….they said Liam looked like Zurg & they were scared! Too funny!

He was thrilled to meet his pal, Pluto. He still says that this meet & greet is one of his favs! ❤

On Spring Break, we also bounced over to the Magic Kingdom. We found Donald Duck dressed up as the Astounding Donaldo Snake Charmer in the Storybook Circus Fantasyland area.

We also found Goofy here dressed as a stuntman, the Great Goofini 🙂

In Frontierland, we found Chip & Dale ….they were so super cute! These pics are a few of my favs so far ❤

Our trips to Disney have been filled with so many smiles & so much laughter. We are thankful to be creating some really awesome memories together as a family. We have lots more fun to share, so stay tuned ….

Until next time, friends