Happy Halloween!

Hello Ghosts and Ghouls!  I just wanted to pop in to wish you all a Happy Halloween!

This is also a little bit of a Throwback Thursday post.  This time last year, Eliot and I were actually down at Walt Disney World with my mother and brother for Halloween.  I bought our tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party months in advance so we could celebrate Halloween Night with Mickey Mouse and friends.

It was obviously a bittersweet trip for all of us since my Dad was supposed to be with us.  We debated cancelling the entire thing after he died, but we all knew that we would probably need a little bit of magic at that point.  It was a pretty good night overall.  We missed Daddy so much, but we knew he would want us to have fun.

The photo from above was from when we first entered the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  Eliot and I made new mouse ears specifically for the event.  I wore my new Torrid candy corn dress and the light up Mickey pumpkin earrings I ordered from another small shop.  We spent the evening getting a little candy, taking photos with some of the characters, and watching the parade and fireworks!

This year we don't have any big plans, but I'm sure I'll still find a way to celebrete!

Happy Halloween!!! 🎃🦇👻🕷 I hope you have a spooktacular day!!! °o°

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes… ✨

Happy Monday!  I've gotten a little bit back into the flow with writing on here.  I'm not sure how long it will last, but I figured I might as well go with it.  Today, I've got some more magical news to share with you.  (If you're reading it here in real time, you'll be the first to know since I'm not sharing it on our social media until later on tonight!)

Also, this news is so magical that the day has finally come... I'm using emojis on my blog.  It's my little space on the internet, so I'm gonna do it.  Plus, if you follow me on social media, you already know how much I love my emojis.  Thus, in order to add a little bit of magic back into my life and blog, here they come in all their glory! ✨

Now onto the magical news... 

🎶 A Dream is a Wish your heart makes… ✨ 

Those lyrics have always been near and dear to my heart.  But what I didn’t expect was for them to become the theme of my 40th Birthday Adventure.  That’s right, today I’m finally letting you all in on the secret that exactly three weeks from today, Eliot and I are boarding the Disney Wish for my magical birthday cruise!!! 🛳✨🐭⚓️

I’m not going to lie, I had started planning a birthday party for myself.  I had a fun theme, a Pinterest inspiration board and some great ideas, but it just never took off.  My heart knew that wasn’t really how I wanted to celebrate my milestone birthday.  What I’ve been dreaming about for years, was taking a Disney Cruise for my 40th.  But for various reasons, I never told anyone the true depth of that wish. ⭐️

Back in May, I finally confessed my dream to Eliot, and thankfully he was “on board” with it. 🛳  So Melissa’s Magical 40th Birthday Cruise Adventure began!  After that, I started looking at cruises… and the Disney Wish had a four night Christmas Cruise over my birthday.  It was like fate was calling out to me. ✨🛳🏝🐭🌴✨

And I haven’t looked back since.  In fact, those of you with eagle eyes might have figured it out since I’ve been dropping hints on social media for both Magically Melissa and Happily Ever Hatter for the past few months.  But I thought I would finally "spill the tea" and tell everyone today.  Only 21 more days until we set sail! ✨🛳 🐭✨

🎶 The Dream that you Wish will come true… 🛳🏝🌺✨🐭🌴

Fun Find: San Jose Sharks Pixar Night

Hello again everyone and happy Friday!!!  (Two posts in one week... who dis?)  I just couldn't help myself, I had to pop in again quickly.  I haven't done a Fun Find Friday post in forever... but I had something that I couldn't help but share with you all.

This past Sunday Night, two of our worlds collided when the San Jose Sharks had an official "Pixar Night" during their home game against the Colorado Avalanche!

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Naturally, you're all probably assuming that we went to it... but sadly we didn't.  Eliot and I both really wish we could have gone out to San Jose for it, but with my big birthday trip coming up, it wasn't in the cards.  However, because of how much we both love Disney, Pixar and the San Jose Sharks, I still wanted to share the details with you!

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You're probably wondering why the Sharks had a Pixar Night.  (To my knowledge, the Sharks are the only NHL team hosting one.)  It appears that the evening was officially sponsored by Disney and Pixar as an Inside Out 2 Promotional event to coincide with the release of the movie on Disney+.  Since hockey plays such an integral roll in Riley's world, it seems fitting that they chose an NHL game to host this promotion!

Photo Source: San Jose Sharks Newsletter Email

As if all that wasn't already cool enough, one of Eliot's and my all time favorite Disney artists, Jerrod Maruyama, created all of the artwork and marketing for the evening!

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For most of the marketing, they used an Inside Out Pixar poster with the nine emotions.  But if you look closely, you'll also notice a re-design of Sharkie!

Note: As soon as I saw the Sharks email about Pixar Night, I remember thinking that the artwork style looked familiar... I think my intuition had put two and two together that it was designed by Jerrod but my cognitive thoughts hadn't gotten there quite yet. 

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Jerrod even dropped the puck for the ceremonial puck toss before the game!

They also created Sharkie Pins with his artwork.  Apparently, the lines to get the pin were ridiculously long, but Eliot's parents were able to get us one!

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I also have to share a fun fact about why I think it was appropriate that the Sharks were the NHL team who hosted the event.  Our very own Sharks announcer, Randy Hahn, has made a cameo in both Inside Out and Inside Out 2 as a hockey announcer!  In addition to that, Kendall Coyne Schofield (a professional women's hockey player who plays for Team USA) is also in Inside Out 2 as a hockey announcer and she has worked on the Sharks network along with Randy!  How cool is that?!?!  

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Throughout the evening, I enjoyed hearing Pixar music on the broadcast.  We obviously didn't get the full game experience, so I missed whatever they did during commercial breaks or intermission, but it was fun to hear it sprinkled in during short stoppages in play.  I caught three definite Pixar songs, Un Poco Loco (from Coco), You've Got a Friend in Me (from Toy Story), and Nobody Like U (from Turning Red).

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After the event was over, Eliot and I noticed Sharkie had posted more images of himself as all of the emotions!  (I didn't think this night could get any cooler... but it did.)

It looks like it was a really fun night!  Hopefully, this will be the first of many official Pixar Nights at the Shark Tank!  Eliot and I would love to attend one!  °o°

One Month Until the Most Magical of Birthdays!

Hello friends!  It's been 7 months since I last stopped by, so I thought it was time to pop in quickly.  Gosh, it's been so long since I regularly posted on here that I have to re-acclimate myself to the buttons for how to change the font and with how to upload a photo.  I guess it's high time I try to get over here more often... 

Since I last stopped by, the past few months have been a mix of highs and lows.  We made it through the one year anniversary of my Dad's death.  Now that we survived the year of "firsts" it feels like a giant burden has been lifted from my shoulders.

I've occasionally found myself wanting to pop over here.  Or I'll find myself "writing" a blog post in my head while in the shower.  Obviously, I haven't actually gotten over here to write anything down, but the desire has been there again... so that's something.

I did want to pop in to mark the occasion of some happy news today.  One month from today is my 40th birthday.  Usually, I would have probably done a whole big thing with it here... but I'm not sure if I'm mentally or emotionally there quite yet.  However, I did have some fun news to share with you all.

Turning 40 probably isn't something that most people get excited about... and I'll admit that I've had my moments and feelings about it.  But what I am most definitely looking forward to is my actual birthday.  Because when you turn 40, you might as well make it the magical milestone that it is.

So today I thought that I'd pop in to let you all in on a little secret, this photo of me with a Mickey balloon at Cinderella Castle celebrating my 33rd birthday won't be the only one in existence after next month because Eliot and I are going to Walt Disney World!!! °o°