The Force Awakens

Spoiler Alert

I avoided any and all Star Wars talk for weeks in anticipation of seeing the movie, and I've refrained from talking about it for as long as possible.  Now that it has grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide and has been in theaters for two weeks, I have decided it's fairly safe to write about it.

However, if you have not seen it yet, stop reading now.

Seriously.  Stop reading.

You will be angry with yourself if you keep reading and you spoil it!

You've been warned!

My one sentence review:
I enjoyed the movie, but I was devastated.

I have a long-running and well-established love of Star Wars, and of Han Solo and Princess Leia in particular.  Check out my Halloween costume in 1980!  I was Princess Leia from Hoth and I was OBSESSED with her.

As for Han Solo?  He is, without question, the longest standing crush of my life - and by extension, of course, Harrison Ford is, too.  C has known that Han Solo had my heart long before he did and he's pretty okay with it.  I honestly don't remember a time in my life when I was not in love with Han Solo, and as a young girl, all I wanted to do was grow up and marry him.  In many ways, I like to think I did just that.

My own real life Han Solo gave me this bracelet on the 27^th anniversary of our first phone call (and the day we consider the beginning of our story), which happened to be December 17.  The Force Awakens was opening later that night.  I was so hyped up about this movie that it was perhaps bordering on embarrassing, but - not sure if I've mentioned this already - I love Star Wars!  We held off seeing the movie until we could go with family, which wasn't until Christmas Eve, and the wait was excruciating.

In 1999, when the prequels came out, after a 16-year Star Wars drought, I drove 7.5 hours to sign my brother J out of boarding school when he was 16 and we went to the first midnight showing of The Phantom Menace.  The next morning, I drove him back to school and I drove 7.5 hours home.  That is the level of dedication I have to Star Wars.

So when I finally saw The Force Awakens with my family on Christmas Eve, I was so proud of myself for having avoided any and all spoilers.  I had almost no idea what to expect.  The only thing C and I did to "prepare" for the movie was to watch Episodes 1-6 in the days leading up to December 24.

My tears began when it was clear Han and Leia did not get their happily ever after.  What?!?  Unacceptable.  I felt completely and utterly betrayed.

And then when Kylo Ren killed Han Solo, I completely lost it.  Seriously.  Like the blotchy-face, whole-body-heaving type of crying.  More than a week later, I am still not over it.  I have adored this character my entire life.  When other people were all about Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, or Boba Fett, I only had one love:  Han Solo.

As a result, no other fictional death has ever impacted me so deeply.

Don't get me wrong – I grow extremely attached to book and movie characters more than I care to admit.

Sirius Black?  Dumbledore?  Hedwig?  Absolutely awful.  These deaths seemed so unfair and were heartbreaking.

Old Dan and Little Ann in Where the Red Fern Grows?  Tragic and soul crushing.  I cry just talking about that book. 

And then there's Bing Bong.  Bing Bong's death comes close.  Very, very close.

But unlike Han Solo, I had not loved Bing Bong for the entirety of my life when he died on screen.

The fact is that I was blindsided when Han Solo was murdered.  I had no idea that was going to happen and so I was completely unprepared because I was predicting a very different outcome for that scene.  I sobbed from that moment until the end of the film.  And then when I was in the theater lobby with my family afterwards, I wavered between feeling so sad I was unable to articulate the depth of my despair to so livid that I could not say anything positive about the movie (other than how adorable BB-8 was – I mean, come on – how could anyone see the movie and not love BB-8?!?).

Obviously I have calmed down since seeing the movie, but I am not over it.  I'd like to see the movie a second time because I know there were so many details I missed, but I cannot relive Han Solo's death again.  My family keeps trying to explain the necessity of his death to me, and maybe after Episodes 8 and 9 are released, I will feel differently.  Right now, though?  No, thanks.  I'll just re-watch Episodes 4-6 and re-live what is, in my opinion, the greatest movie kiss of all time:

Happy Tails to you!

December 13

Today would have been Chelsea's 17^th birthday.

Although it's been almost eight weeks since she left us, it feels like it happened yesterday.  There are constant reminders of our loss.

I recently went to the county government building to renew our dogs' licenses, and I told the lady that Chelsea had passed away.  I watched as she deleted Chelsea from our record.  It took everything I had to hold it together until I was back in the car, where I sat alone and sobbed.

My dad came to visit this weekend, and immediately remarked upon entering the house that this was the first time he'd been here without Peanut to greet him at the door ("Peanut" was his nickname for Chelsea her entire life).

I set up my new classroom and it is the only one I've ever had in which a current photo of Chelsea was not displayed.

But perhaps the most constant reminder is every single day when there is no little face looking up at me expectantly because she wants my coffee.  This was our daily routine and I would give anything to share my coffee with her again.

It's really all of the "firsts" without her that keep popping up that are heartbreaking – I haven't had it in me to do Christmas cards yet because I really don't know if I can handle the idea of her photo not being on them.  I realize it is now December 13th and that there is a serious chance I will not send Christmas cards this year.

However, I have some wonderful people in my life who share in my grief and who remind me each day of how comical Chelsea was – and those happy memories are slowly healing my heart.

My mom kindly attended the Remembrance Ceremony hosted at our veterinary office in our place, since we were out of town.  She shared stories about Chelsea – particularly about her affinity for coffee.  She brought Chelsea's ornament from the ceremony home and it will hang on our tree.  You may recall that we attended last year's ceremony as well.

One of my best friends had this bookmark made for me…it reads, "The ones that love us never really leave us" and has a paw print stamped on it.  The heart reads, "Chelsea #1."  I was overwhelmed when I opened this gift.  So perfect.

C gave me this same quote – one of my favorite J.K. Rowling quotes – as a framed print and I cannot wait to hang in our house.

Another dear friend gave me this plant in honor of Chelsea.  I have never, ever, ever been able to keep a plant alive, but I am on a mission to do so with this particular plant!

And today, her birthday, my mom gave me this card and the flowers, and C gave me the Dumbo mug with the "Baby Mine" scene on it.

I am so fortunate to be surrounded by kind and thoughtful people and I am thankful each and every day for the gift of having them in my life.

Finally, I bought something for myself:  a pair of Tinker Bell mouse ears.  Chelsea's middle name was Tinker Bell – she was tiny and feisty, so it suited her well – and I love all things Tinker Bell because of that.  I can't wait to wear the ears on our next Disney adventure.

We miss our girl terribly, but love the amazing memories we have because of her.

Happy Tails to you!

WDW: Osborne Lights

When we learned a few months ago that this year would be the final season for the Osborne Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios, we immediately booked a trip to see them one last time.  I'm really hoping they reappear somewhere else in the future, but we weren't taking any chances!

For our Magic Bands for this trip, we chose Duchess and Thomas O'Malley from The Aristocats:

We checked in at Port Orleans Riverside on Saturday morning and our room was once again one of the Royal Guest Rooms, which we've been fortunate to stay in twice before (click on that link for additional photos of the room).  They are beautiful rooms!  One common complaint that I despise reading online is that Mousekeeping doesn't leave towel animals in the hotel rooms.  It is such a dumb thing to complain about.  When it happens, it's a nice little surprise, but people who expect it are extremely annoying when they share their ridiculous outrage and disappointment.  We never expect anything beyond a clean room, so any additional surprises are fun to discover when we return to the resort.  This time, we were gifted with an adorable little towel creature.  Seriously, SO cute!

We went to MK for a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest, which is always an amazing experience.  Unfortunately, the park was crazy busy, so we did a few things and then left – we saw Mickey's Philharmagic, rode the Peoplemover, and admired the Christmas decorations.  To be honest, we did not mind returning to our resort for a few hours; we took a nap because we knew we were going to have a late night.  After that, we had dinner over at Art of Animation and then got beignets and a hand-scooped ice cream sandwich at Port Orleans French Quarter.

We met a friend and his sweet girlfriend for drinks – you might remember that Dean was the photographer at our vow renewal last year, but we are actually friends now, so from here on out, I am just going to refer to him as Dean, rather than "our photographer, Dean" because that now sounds silly to me.  The four of us met at Crew's Cup Lounge at Yacht Club, and I really can't believe in 20+ years of visiting this resort we have never been in there!  Its entire theme is crew – and because of my brother, we are a huge crew family!  They have a rowing shell suspended from the ceiling, oars hung around the bar, and crew silhouettes along the walls.  We loved it in there and will definitely be going back.  Plus, seeing Dean is always awesome and I wish we lived closer so we could hang out more often.

After parting ways, we went to Jellyrolls because my beloved Scotty was performing.  As always, the music was fantastic, and for it being a Saturday night, it was fairly quiet crowd, which I will never complain about!  It was so great to catch up with Scotty and I enjoyed his banter with Ray about me when I requested Taylor Swift (memorable line of the night:  "Yes, Ray – women can be doctors now!") Even though we were tired, we stayed until closing and Scotty played me his jazzy rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" at the end of the night.  He is the absolute best.

On Sunday, we slept in until 2 pm.  It was glorious.  I can't remember the last time we slept in that late!  If I had my way, I would sleep from 4 am – 2 pm every day of the week because I think best at night and I don't function particularly well in the morning.  We again went over to Art of Animation for lunch (it is my favorite food court at WDW) and then to Animal Kingdom Lodge to check out the Christmas decorations over there before going to DHS.  We had tickets to the Merry and Bright Dessert Party, and it was awesome!  The dessert choices were delicious and we had a great view of the Osborne Lights; the music, the lights, the snow…everything made for a perfect evening.  After the dessert party, we spent several additional hours wandering around admiring the lights and I really, really, really do hope Disney will find a new home for them in the future.

On Monday, we spent part of the morning at Animal Kingdom before our lunch reservation at Yak & Yeti.  Soooooo yum.  After lunch, we went back over to MK, and the crowds were even more insane than they'd been on Saturday, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.  The weather was gorgeous and the Christmas decorations add such ambiance to an already magical place!

Later in the evening, we had the opportunity to check something off our WDW bucket list!  One of my best friends had just arrived the day before for a week-long family trip and they were staying in a grand villa at Bay Lake Tower.  Just visiting the resort and seeing their room would have been exciting enough, but we also got to watches Wishes from Top of the World Lounge.  Absolutely amazing.  Her family was so warm and welcoming and we had a fabulous time hanging out with them; the lounge was gorgeous and the view of Wishes cannot be beat.  Afterwards, we went back to MK and stayed until the park closed, by which time the park had cleared out.  Such a memorable night!

On Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel and went over to Epcot for the morning before spending the afternoon visiting different resorts to admire the Christmas decorations.  We had an evening flight and were so glad to see our little gals when we got home!

Our annual passes will expire in early December, so it will be a few months before we go back and renew them – especially now that I am back teaching because my vacation time is rather limited!

However, I counted up all of the nights I spent at a WDW hotel over the course of this year's annual passes (December 2014 through this trip), and my total was 45 NIGHTS!!!  FORTY-FIVE!!!  My highest total ever!  And if I include the three nights at Disneyland Hotel in October, my total is 48 nights at a Disney hotel.  Two things are abundantly clear: it was a very good year and I am incredibly lucky.

Happy Tails to you!