SIXTY DAYS AND COUNTING

Well my plan for posting here daily went by the wayside over the weekend but I'm back!

The best news about today in particular was that I arrived home to find a piece of mail for me from the Disney Vacation Club. Now I've been waitlisted for any available studio room in Disney during Thanksgiving week. My brother and his girlfriend are arriving the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I wanted to be able to use my Vacation Club points to reserve a room for them as well, since our 3 bedroom villa for that week was already booked. I had even arranged our original reservation into a split stay at two different room types in two different resorts just to have the points available to borrow for this purpose. Anyway, today the letter arrived confirming a reservation for a studio room for my brother to use. I couldn't wait to call him tonight to share the good news. It's nice to be able to basically pay for the rooms for everyone in our family that will be joining us during Thanksgiving.

So, we arrive the Thursday before Thanksgiving, probably sometime that evening after a long drive from home. It will be our family of five plus my mother-in-law and father-in-law. We will check into our 2 bedroom room at Disney's Old Key West for that weekend and the first 4 nights of our stay, checking out on Monday morning.

Monday afternoon my parents will join us in Disney. At that point, we will all be checking into a 3 bedroom vacation villa at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort for the remainder of our vacation, or four more nights. My in-laws will take one bedroom, my parents will take another bedroom, Frank and I will take the 3rd bedroom and the kids will use the pull-out sofa. It should work out just fine for all of us, considering most of our time will be spent in the parks anyway. My brother arrives on Tuesday and they will check into their studio room at Saratoga Springs for 3 nights.

I have already made plans for a few meals for all of us together, especially on Thanksgiving day. It seems a bit strange to not be eating at home on Thanksgiving considering Frank and I have been hosting Thanksgiving dinner together ever since we were married for our whole family. At least we will all be together for Thanksgiving. We'll just be paying somebody else to cook and the menu will be much bigger considering we're eating in a steakhouse. They will still have traditional Thanksgiving fare there, but I wonder what the chances are that I can get that coveted turkey drumstick as I always do for Thanksgiving? Probably not.

I guess that's just the sacrifice I'll have to make to be able to have Thanksgiving dinner away from home. The important thing is that most of our family will be there with us this year. I'm really looking forward to that.