Teacups and Toasters

“In love a throne will be established;

in faithfulness a man will sit on it -

one from the house of David -

one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.”

Isaiah 16:9

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”       Galations 5:22

When we try to live of these, we are all the better for it. I thank God that I could de-stress for a few days and get back on track to practicing them.

A short list of the things that made me smile most at Walt Disney World:

* The Magical Express driver actually said, “God bless.”

* Partycake meeting her friends and the way it made them so real

* The Crystal Palace experience

* Finding out that the Christmas parade, is still called the Christmas parade

* All the cast members calling Partycake, “Princess.”

* Feeling like a really big, little kid -all the time

* Finally, seeing Tinkerbell fly down from the castle

* Friendly people from all over the world giving up their seats on the bus for Partycake

Oh yes. Thirty Dollar Soup. That’s what I’m calling this lovely, beautiful, dish. The chef called it Coconut Curried Seafood Soup.

The picture does not do this soup justice. It was the best soup that I have ever, ever, ever had. It even out rated my former favorite – chicken noodle soup from The William Wallace Monument in Stirling, Scotland. (That soup still holds a special place in my heart, though.)  Thirty Dollar Soup was discovered the first day of our trip on the buffet at Boma located in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The Animal Kingdom Lodge is a beautiful resort, complete with roaming giraffes, gazelles, and the like. We didn’t stay here, just had dinner. I’d been to Boma before, but I definitely do not remember eating this beautiful soup.

I call it Thirty Dollar Soup because even if I had paid for the buffet (we went on free dining plan week) and I had only eaten this soup, it would’ve been worth it. I don’t believe that I have ever said that about a food before and I really do love food. It was creamy and not too fishy and not too thick. It wasn’t drippy. Basically, the texture of the broth combined with shrimp, scallops, and other seafood flavorings, was unreal. The broth is based in coconut milk, which was so much better than real milk for lactose intolerant me. The chef was fantastic and uberly sweet too. She came out and walked me down the buffet line letting me know what was safe for me to eat. She even made a peach sorbet, especially for me, since all the desserts had milk in them. Oh, and she even came out to check on us while were dining, instead of just letting the server do that part. Of course, I let her know how amazing her soup was. I thought about asking for the recipe, but no, this soup should be a secret. It really is that good!

My apologies for not posting in over a week, but a girl needs a vacation every now and again, as does the rest of her family and it was AMAZING! We had an incredible time on our first family trip to Walt Disney World. I know I promised lots of Disneyesque posts, so the plan is for the next week…all Disney…and then I’m going to have to stop because I already miss it so much. It’s my happy place here on Earth and having now been there with my child, it’s even more of a happy place.

My daughter is a few days away from turning two and I wasn’t really expecting her to take to the characters. She absolutely LOVED them. LOVED THEM! LOVED THEM!  Except…Baloo and King Louie freaked her out, which was a little odd because The Jungle Book is one of her favorites and we have to listen to The Bear Necessities 100 times a week. Pretty much everyone else was a hit!  Every morning for two weeks before we left, she would wake up and ask to go see Princess Cinderella’s Castle. Well, not only did she get to see the castle, but we got to meet Cinderella herself! Partycake ( my gal) went running up to her and gave her a big hug. We saw her in an area of Toon Town known as The Hall of Fame (little place at the side of a gift shop) and she was hanging out with Aurora a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty and Belle. The way the line was staged, you had to see Aurora first, Cinderella second, and Belle third. Partycake was really polite and friendly with Aurora, but after a few moments started pointing Cinderella out to her. It was pretty cute.

Aside, from the princessess, Winnie the Pooh made her uberly happy. I mean when we were having some rough two year old moments, if Winnie the Pooh passed by…life was suddenly sweeter. Of course Tigger and Piglet were a hit, as well. We even got to walk down a pathway to the staging area at Animal Kingdom with Piglet all to ourselves. For some reason though, Eeyore was not such a hit. Maybe it’s because he was doing some funky dancing while we were in line?

Being that this was Partycake’s first trip, we really wanted it to be special and spent 98% of our time doing things that we thought she would enjoy. We rode Dumbo three times, went to Ariel’s Grotto (highly recommended for the mermaid fans), had three character meals, took in the Playhouse Disney show and character greets (did I mention we did a lot of character greets?) and rode the train in the Magic Kingdom as much as we could. And you know what? We didn’t feel like we missed out on things we used to do as teens and college students. We skipped taking turns on Tower of Terror and The Rockin’ Roller Coaster. We skipped Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain. When I grabbed a fast pass to Splash Mountain, my husband and Partycake went to The Country Bear Jamboree. Actually, I thought we were doing that one together, but they tricked me! I thought they were headed to The Hall of Presidents so that she could take a nap! I went on Soarin’ at Epcot, while they ate a giant chocolate brownie in the food court (Sunshine Seasons) that the ride is attached to. My husband rode Mission Space, while Partycake and I played with toys in a giant shop at Epcot (I think it’s called Mouse Ears).

Now that we are back home, she cries at night for the train and when we promised to take her to the mall to ride the little train, she started talking about getting a map and seeing Dumbo and Princess Cinderella. It’s been hard unwinding from the constant excitement, for all of us. Perhaps it will help me a little to post a little each day this week. Obviously, this is not a little post, so I will end it here and leave you with a pic.  There’s more to come and I promise not to be so lengthy!

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 18:10

These are the words of Jesus speaking to the disciples on the concern for the lost. Though the scriptures surrounding this passage are both comforting and propelling at the same time, as they discuss God’s care and love for all people, 18:10 touched me in an unexpected reading.

The scene is this: The disciples have come to Jesus and have asked Him,”Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus then takes a child and sets him before the disciples and tells them, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” 18:1-4

Jesus is not asking us to act as children with tantrums, crying when we don’t get our way, or being obsessive with toys. He’s not suggesting that we halt our learning processes, or become dependent on our moms and dads. What He is saying is this:

God wants us to be humble in the way that children are humble. Children are humble in the sense that they ultimately know that they are not in charge, they know and admit that they don’t know everything, are willing to ask for help, are comfortable crying out when afraid, and God wants us to be dependent on Him, our heavenly Father.

What does this have to do with passage 18:10?

18:10 follows a listing of things that seems outrageous, but please don’t freak when you read them. Go on, open up a Bible, read them. 18:7-9.    Read it?  Okay, so Jesus is telling us how important it is to avoid things that cause us to sin. If you know that certain situations cause you to stumble, avoid them permanently. 18:10 is another thing to avoid. Don’t despise children. Don’t despise those who are humble before God. 18:10 touched a chord because it speaks of the guardian angels that watch over children. Those angels are always in God’s presence. They know what is taking place in the life of a child, God knows what is taking place and He doesn’t even need angels to know what’s going on in the life of a child. When we despise and feel hatred toward those who are being watched over by God, we are sinning. Guess what? We are all watched over by God. We are called upon to not despise, nor hate, anyone. God knows what is happening in everyone’s life. He cares what is happening and He is paying attention.

We must be careful and on guard against human nature that is fallible. We are all faulty and all capable of hatred. However, we are also capable and created to be humble. We must watch our paths and our thoughts. Verses 18:11-14 are comforting to our faults.  “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”

Today I picked up the phone to confirm our dining reservations and have them note that I am lactose intolerant (for the upcoming WDW trip). I called Boma first and they were very nice and took all my information to pass along to the chef. Feeling pretty special because my notes were being passed on to the chef, I placed the second call to the number I was given for The Crystal Palace. A friendly woman named Brenda answered the phone. Here is where customer service that is up and over and beyond begins. Brenda took all my information and passed it on to the chefs at the rest of my reservations. She then sends me an email with FIVE attached documents about food allergies and what is dairy free and what is not (for all four Disney parks and one water park).  There was information on a new allergen free chicken tender with a list of all the quick service places that will be serving it. There was information on pre-packaged desserts. I could go on and on, there was just a plethera of helpful information. For example: I don’t have to ask about fries, or hamburger/hotdog buns. I now know that fries are safe and buns are not. This may not seem like a big deal, if you don’t have a food allergy, or intolerance, but trust me – it gets really old having to ask every place you go. Sometimes waitstaff looks at me like I’m ridiculous and say something to the affect of, “No, we don’t add milk to our fries.” When we eat at Disney, they aren’t going to look at me like I’m ridiculous, the chef will actually come out and talk to me and even walk me through the buffet and tell me what is safe. They have special ice cream prepped ahead of time. They will make things like MICKEY WAFFLES, with soy, or rice milk. This is customer service at it’s finest.

Customer service should be about catering to your customer as an individual. I know this Disney customer service usually comes with a steep price, but we were fortunate enough to catch hold of a free dining week. Still, when we go back again and it’s not free, I’ll still be able to order up a quick service, or a table service or two and know that I don’t have to worry about someone not checking the ingredient label. And whatever meals we pay for, the money will be well spent, simply because of the outstanding customer service.