John is the more thoughtful and consistent gift giver in our family. Because we often buy ourselves what we need when we need it, we never exchange lists for Christmas gifts and rarely get each other anniversary or birthday presents. Over the years I've gifted John a few experiences for/near his birthday but this year I finally thought of something extraordinary: an adults only trip to Disney World. We have been to WDW alone one other time for a work conference, but this was specifically to dine at the adults only Victoria & Albert's, a reservation that required me to get up at 5 a.m. two weekend mornings in a row, six months before his birthday. I was thankful I got the reservation on day two; not sure I wanted a third day up that early!
Thanks to some very gracious grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, William got an extended Thanksgiving in Indianapolis while we spent two nights in Florida.
Although the Food & Wine Festival had ended two weeks prior, EPCOT was having its Festival of the Holidays which also included tasting booths. We had a lovely lunch as we ate and drank our way around the World Showcase and then returned in the evening for the Illuminations fireworks with its special Peace on Earth holiday ending that we had never seen.
Canada: Seared salmon, traditional French Canadian tourtiere, maple buche de noel, frozen coffee with whisky. We started with the best intentionally in case we got too full or ran out of time.
Father Christmas telling his story
France: Turkey and mushroom in a Veloutte cream sauce, Buche de Noel au Chocolat, some beer from somewhere, and Grand Marnier slushy (not pictured). Quite good.
America: Orange Blossom Brewing Cranberry Kringle Pilsner, Shipyard Eggnog White Porter, JDub's Season's Greetings Peppermint Milk Stout (these were all laughably horrible!)
Italy: Cavatappi ai Quattro Formaggi and Moretti Amber Lager. The pasta was very tasty, which may have been enhanced by my low expectations!
We don't go to World Showcase often, so I was shocked to see that the Italy pavilion had this St. Mark's Square replicas. Perhaps I've always noticed but it never sunk it since I hadn't been to Venice yet!
Mexico: Tamale stuffed with shrimp and cheese. Not amazing. I also got a margarita to drink during Illuminations. Strangely I have no photos of it. Probably because I tried to erase all memory of it after I realized the salt on the rim (of which I rarely get) had salt, chili power and black ants in a fancy mixture. Apparently that's a thing.....
Starbucks: had to swing by to get an iced coffee and my "You are Here" mug that I missed on our trip this summer. Though when I got home I realized I actually already had it.
Refreshment Port: Beef brisket poutine. Not bad tasting; not good for you in any way!
