A Tropical Christmas Season

Ok, so I missed the month of November. But really, who's surprised? Quick summary: I worked on Thanksgiving but had a nice 99 cent feast with some co-workers, yay Disney for feeding their employees well for cheap. :) Chris got me a GORGEOUS Disney necklace for our anniversary, it's splendid. :) Jordan came to visit me for a weekend and we had an amazing, wonderful, splendiforous time. :) Here's me and her with the boss's girl:

So that was absolutely wonderful and I looked forward to that weekend for a long time. Also, I worked 8 days in a row in order to have those 3 days off...WORTH IT! I wish I could hang out with my best friends in Disney all the time. :) We did many joyful things. For example, the night she got here we went to the Polynesian Resort to watch Wishes on the beach. We thought it started at 9, so we were sinning on a swing catching up and waiting for it to start, but at 9 the most bizarre light show started on the lake in front of us...it wasn't quite what we were expecting. Jordan didn't think much of Wishes, until I explained to her that was NOT Wishes...apparently, Wishes started that night at 10. So we went inside the Polynesian and got some amazing Dole Whip...and THEN watched Wishes on a broken hammock that we jerryrigged so we could sit on it...it was a little scary, considering the slightest move could have caused it to break and fall, but I think it was well worth it. :) Then the next day we had reservations at Le Chefs de France, and we watched Illuminations on the dock in Mexico...it was gorgeous. :) Then we had reservations at Kona Cafe the day she left...it was a wonderful trip. :)

Also in November, we had the Disney College Program formal.  Basically, they wanted us to re-live Prom, except it was awesome. Lots of tasty, free food, and lots of characters to meet, like the MAD HATTER!!

Anyways, so to December now. I have less than a month until I go home...and I think I'm a little sad about it. :( My job is amazing if only for the people that I work with and I'm not ready to say goodbye to them. Unfortunately, tonight I have to say bye to one, who is going home tomorrow because he had a sharp keychain. It happens. *shrug* We will be going to Ohana tonight in the Polynesian to bid him an amazing happy birthday/goodbye. Love you, Corey. :)

Since it's the Christmas season, I have been trying to make myself feel as festive as possible. For example, I drink a cup of tea or coffee almost every day, I listen to Christmas music on the way to work, and I watch things like Charlie Brown Christmas on Hulu. Nevermind that it's 80 degrees in Orlando and there are no Christmas lights anywhere in my work place, I refuse to miss the Christmas season, I don't care how tropical and summer-y it feels. So for that reason, I had a massive girls' night last night at my place. We watched Christmas movies, had stupid conversation and ate massive amounts of food. :)

So, I know I did this last blog, but last night I made a cookie and I want to post the recipe for it again. :) They are tasty delicious!

Snowball Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups walnuts, finely chopped
3 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 lb butter, room temperature
pinch of salt
Powdered sugar, to coat (about 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. (Flour, sugar, salt, walnuts). Add the vanilla extract. Add the butter in small pieces, and combine everything together with your hands until the mixture's consistency is like a thick oatmeal. (Make sure your hands are clean!!)

 This dough isn't the most tasty, but just trust that it makes delectable cookies. :)

After it is to the right consistency, roll the dough into balls no larger than a walnut and place them on a prepared cookie sheet. Give them some space, because these cookies will flatten out a bit in the oven.

Bake the cookies for 35 minutes. Once you have taken them out and let them cool, roll them in powdered sugar until sufficiently coated. (Make sure you let them cool long enough...if not, they can be extremely crumbly when you try to pick them up. Give it about 7-10 minutes.)

And then, enjoy the cookies and share the christmas cheer with your friends! At least, my friends seemed to enjoy them. :)

So anyways, I have about 3 more weeks here, and a bunch of my favorite people get here in less than one week. You might say I'm a little bit excited. As for now, I'm going to try to get over this cold I've been struggling with for a while before everyone gets here.

Time to get ready for Ohana. :)

Courtney

P.S. I "graduate" from the Disney program tomorrow morning, how exciting! I get my ears and everything. :)