It's a Small World After All...
If you've never been to Disneyland at Christmas time, you really must go. It's cold at night, so dress warm, but everything is decked out for Christmas and you won't believe that you've never seen the happiest place on earth so beautifully transformed before!

That's the way I felt recently when I went to Disneyland with Chingpea for the first time during the holidays. I can't believe I've missed out on a Disneyland Christmas all my life. Christmas is officially my favorite time of the year to go to Disneyland now. Way better than summer, the lines are shorter and Santa's there too.

Here's a peek at what you're missing at Disneyland...


Sleeping Beauty's Castle lit up at night


It's a Small World lit up at night

Get in the Christmas spirit and watch this video of It's a Small World and see Disney's Magical Christmas transformation of the ride.



Doesn't that video just put you in the Christmas spirit? Fa la la la la... it's a Small World after all.

Video and Photos By: Chingpea

Labels: California, Christmas, Disneyland, Happiest Place on Earth, It's a Small World, magic

  posted by Matildakay at 8:49 PM 2 comments

Sleepless in Bakersfield and One Degree of Separation
Late last night I was laying in bed not sleeping again for what seemed like the hundredth night in a row. Anyone who’s read my blog regularly knows that I suffer from insomnia and have for several years now. I fight the non-sleeping disease with books, music, movies and late night TV. Sometimes I wander through the house looking for something to occupy my thoughts. Other times I stare out my bedroom window watching the tree branches sway back and forth looking for that illusive dream state.

Last night while flipping through the channels on TV I found an old favorite movie, Sleepless in Seattle. Nora Ephron knows how to write a good romantic comedy! Tom Hanks, the sleepless one, and Meg Ryan are two characters on opposite coasts both looking for that something in their life that is missing. Magic!

Perhaps the missing magic is the thing that causes insomnia.

I pondered the ‘magic’ theory while Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s search for magic drew them inevitably together. When suddenly I realized I had been one degree of separation from Nora Ephron, which made me two degrees of separation from Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan!

I met Hallie Ephron, an accomplished author and Nora Ephron’s sister, at the Yosemite Writers Conference this past August. I drank a glass of wine with Hallie Ephron and had a conversation about writing at the presenter’s party in Bonnie Hearn Hill’s suite. I talked and drank with the queen of the romantic comedy’s sister! Unbelievable. Magic!

I don’t know why I finally realized the importance of that conversation and glass of wine last night. At the time, I thought I was just talking to another published author and presenter. I won’t take that conversation and glass of wine for granted ever again.

Last August I was one degree of separation from Nora Ephron, but for now, I remain sleepless in Bakersfield.

Labels: Bakersfield, Bonnie Hearn Hill, Hallie Ephron, Insomnia, magic, Meg Ryan, Nora Ephron, One degree of separation, Romantic Comedy, sleep, Sleepless in Seattle, Tom Hanks

  posted by Matildakay at 11:47 PM 0 comments