As I am sure many of you can attest, the holidays are a crazy time. We often set unrealistic expectations and then expect ourselves to deliver on those expectations, leading to high levels of stress and exhaustion. Yep, we were there. Emily and I agreed that it would be fun to take our cameras and the GoPro to Epcot and have some fun around the World Showcase. Although these adventures are a ton of fun with the boys, Emily’s parents were gracious enough to have the boys for a sleepover, so Em and I took advantage of an evening to ourselves.
We dropped the boys off at around 4 pm which gave us enough time to get to Epcot with enough daylight left to capture some sunset photos and video. We took our time at the entrance of the park, which felt a bit strange as we are normally hustling to get somewhere, to enjoy the meticulously decorated holiday planter that greets Guests as the enter the park. When you have kids you realize that you often don’t take time to just sit in one place and enjoy your surroundings.
We worked our way thorough Future World with our sights set on the holiday flavors and atmosphere of the World Showcase. The first flavor that Emily had her heart set on was a margarita from Mexico. She was kind enough to get us drinks (in a line that can extend thirty minutes or more) while I set up the GoPro to capture a sunset time lapse over the World Showcase Lagoon. The atmosphere could not have been more ideal because the Mariachi Cobre band was playing just down the walkway, and they mixed in a few holiday numbers that provided a melodic backdrop. As the camera did its work I enjoyed relaxing outside and watching the crowds meander by.
Emily arrived with our cocktails, we snapped a few more photos, and continued on to Norway. We took our time walking through the lands and stores, capturing some of the amazing holiday details throughout. Emily of course took her opportunities to remind me of additional items that she wanted for Christmas (she is so helpful that way).
We continued our World Showcase journey that took us to be beautiful sights and sounds of Germany. As we approached the country we saw that the glass blower Reinhard Herzog was making custom blown glass ornaments, so we headed over to have a look. It didn’t take us long to decide that these would make some great gifts for the family, and maybe one for us too. It was fun watching him work, creating these beautifully colorful masterpieces with glass. He was able to engrave each one giving them that extra Disney magic touch.
All the walking and picture taking really helped us work up an appetite. Since we were enjoying the spontaneity of winging it, something we don’t often do, we hadn’t made any official dinner reservations or plans. We read on the holiday kiosk menu at the American Adventure that they were serving a turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I am pretty sure I didn’t even need to get to the end of that item description before determining that I would be enjoying that this evening. I stood in line to get our dinner while Emily explored one of her favorite shops in the World Showcase at the America pavilion. We finished our respective tasks at about the same time and grabbed a spot right out front of the shop so we could enjoy our meals with the beautiful backdrop of the Candlelight Processional. Hard to not be taken in by the holiday spirit at that moment. The music concluded just as we were finishing our last delicious morsels of gravy covered goodness. Emily had her eye on a Alex and Ani Disney bracelet requiring us to return to the American Adventure store to pick her up an early Christmas present.
We continue on around the World Showcase to finish the second half of our holiday walk. The remainder of our evening consisted of much of the same as the first half. Ducking in and out of shops with our cameras in hand looking for unique holiday shots to capture Epcot at its finest. France and the UK presented many of these opportunities as their cozy array of stores were themed to perfection. We took our time enjoying our stroll through the park and exited with a little gas left in our tanks and Emily not wanting to call it a night quite yet.
We had one more stop in us that night, BJ’s Restaurant. This isn’t a place we frequent very often but it was a game time decision that we made as we were having a hard time deciding where to go on the drive home. We grabbed a drink and a late night snack consisting of Pizookies (hot cookies sundaes). There are multiple flavors that you can choose from so we agreed to split the sampler of three of them. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful holiday evening.
