Let see how this goes; I'm sitting on my couch watching Thursday night football with my one cat walking all over me. I have been contemplating for the past few day on what to write about this week. In addition I have been wondering when and what to do for next week's podcast. That is partially where these two words collide. I just did an episode with Isaac for over an hour and a half about last week's Disney's Investors Meeting and we didn't even cover half of what was reviled to us. There is also the season finally of the Mandalorian (as of this writing hasn't been released yet). Then there is all the Christmas stuff I can talk about, but I was thinking of saving that for next week.
All of this is going on in addition to "normal" life. My one son's school now went virtual and that means while I am teaching from home I also have to be ready to help him with his classes. We also had our first snow storm in a while. As if that wasn't enough it's playoff time in my fantasy football leagues (Matthew Berry, call me). So what does that mean for you and this blog post?
Simple! It's the Holidays and that's what I want to talk about, not just to you but everyone.
My house is a Christmas house. We have out tree up, lights out, and so much more going on. Besides what seems like limitless Disney ornaments we have many other decorations around the house. I would say half of the outdoor decorations are Disney related. Inside we have my wife's old (and still working) animatronic figures under one of the trees (we have 5 up around the house). But the one thing I want to talk about is the "toy" motorized monorail set under our main tree.
This has been one of my prize possessions for a long time. I remember when I was you I would have loved to have something like this. In 1998 I bought my first train, it was the red one (the only option in Walt Disney World at that time). It was the first time I saw something like this offered from Disney, so I wanted to act because you never know how long it will be offered. They also had a Spaceship Earth, Contemporary, and Cinderella's Castle sets to go with the Monorail. I don't remember when or what order I got the rest of the sets, but it was something that I made sure to collect.
Sadly, I have not been able to get all the sets Disney has created over the years (they still sell the Monorail sets at the time of this writing). But I have been able to get many of the sets including; the Contemporary, the Polynesian, Switching Station, Space Mountain, Spaceship Earth (the original set), Cinderella's Castle (of course), and many more. I have also added 3 more trains to it. Needless to say it has a large footprint under the tree.
You may be wondering at this point, "How do the holiday's fit into this?", well I'll tell you.
For the past 20 years I have placed this growing collection under the tree (yes my wife is ok with this and has encouraged it). Our tree isn't complete until the Monorail goes underneath. Granted this started before kids, now with kids it has changed things.
My oldest (our daughter) was always respectful of the set and just liked helping me set it up and watch it. My boys love playing with the sets. But boys being boys, do over play with the sets. Much to my dismay, a lot of them have been damaged over time. Does this make me upset? Yes, especially when I have seen the going rate on some of these sets on eBay. At the same time it makes me smile that they have these opportunities to play with something I would have thought was amazingly cool at their ages.
This is now part of our family tradition that for a little over a month we get to enjoy as a family. It's a tradition that is connected to our love for Disney and the Christmas season. The magic of the two blend perfectly in our house and it is something that (as long as they hold up) will continue for many year.
Many other families put a model train under their tree, we do as well but it's a monorail... a Disney Monorail. We our a Disney family and that is how we roll.
What are your holiday traditions (Disney or otherwise)?
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