This week at Walt Disney World I had the pleasure of a visit from a friend, Jody Ann Malsbury, whom  Carey and I hadn’t seen since our  very first visit to WDW nineteen years ago.   After a delicious lunch at the Biergarten at Germany, Jody and I spent an afternoon of laughter and reminiscing of places we had gone and experiences we had together when we had lived and worked near each other over two decades ago.    Our lives had changed so much in those nineteen years: Carey and I had moved from Boston to Austin to New Jersey, Jody had a beautiful daughter, but we still laughed the way we did when we were in our twenties, whether at a nine pound lemon in the greenhouses at The Land (imagine how a wedge of that would look in your iced tea) to Ellen DeGeneres pointing at my new haircut in the pre-show film at the Universe of Energy (yes, she was pointing to me) to the hilarious film of our future at the end of Spaceship Earth.

It’s less than a week before Thanksgiving and I am thankful for my friends, many of whom I am reconnecting with on facebook.   Thank you for a wonderful visit, Jody, and for the gift of friendship that has stood the test of time.

At least through Disney magic at the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights at Walt Disney World.     The Streets of America at the Disney Hollywood Studios are lined with over five million lights that originally came from the Osborne family in Little Rock, Arkansas and was moved to Walt Disney World in 1995 after it apparently became a little overwhelming for their neighbors.  Everything is covered with lights from the buildings to the picnic tables and bicycles.

Disney has added its own touches to the display, including snow falling gently on the guests as they walk through the lighted streets.   Every ten minutes, the lights dance to a different holiday song.   Carey and I look forward to this every year on our November trip, and as many times as we have seen it, we still are moved by the music, the lights and the pure joy of  seeing the faces of young and old alike, reaching for snowflakes, transformed by the wonder of this magical world.