Souvenirs

I wore a Mickey necklace to work today. Not an "in your face" Mickey necklace, just a single, elongated strand of gemstones of various shapes and colors with a surprise of some of the gemstones being in the shape of Mickey's head. Subtle, and I hope, stylish. I have another Mickey necklace, too, and a watch. . . All of this, along with an e-mail from a family excitedly planning their first Disney vacation, got me thinking about souvenirs. You can click here to read about what we collect each trip. But now, I'm talking about the items that speak to you, that say bring me home. It is more of a sixth sense shopping experience rather than a "I have to remember to buy _______(fill in the blank) experience."



The more I thought about this idea of souvenirs, it dawned on me that many, dare I say almost all, of our souvenirs are items we would use on a regular basis back at home. . . like a necklace. . . and that the use of those items bring us a bit of Disney magic at home. Like for instance my black gloves with Mickey on them. I wear them daily during the winter and they make me smile. Or, how about our ice cream scoop. I just scooped up a dish of ice cream for the boy yesterday using our Mickey ice cream scoop and again, it made me smile. We have Mickey measuring cups, a few drink glasses--not a set or anything--just random cups, picture frames, throws for the bed or couch, music CD from the parks, a Mickey waffle maker (that was a gift!), and Mickey silverware.


Someone asked me once if our house was all Disney. The answer is no, our house is not all Disney. That would be like having a house that is all football or all cats or all gardening or all whatever the hobby the inhabitants enjoy. I don't know anyone whose house is "all" something. Do you? But I can say that we have many Disney touches as mentioned above.


So back to souvenirs. The point that I want to make is this: Disney has lots of stuff to purchase and bring home. I would say those items are either things to use while you are on vacation or things to enjoy once you get home. We, as a family, tend to go for the stuff that we can use and enjoy while at home to bring us more magic after our Disney vacation is over or to help us build anticipation for our next Disney vacation. Take a week ago Sunday for example. It was just after eating Mickey waffles using our Mickey silverware that I dialed 1-407-WDW-DINE to make our dining reservations for our next trip. While making the reservations alone would have built anticipation and excitement, we celebrated the occasion with Mickey waffles for breakfast. Now, if I just hadn't worn out my Mickey slippers!


Whatever your dream and desire to bring home from Disney, we hope it will be magical and bring you smiles and memories!




P.S. The above photo is one I left out of the "3 Characters of More Challenge" post. Click here to read more.