I scurried home from work eager to finally unload the big secret. Sadly this would be the end of my secret dates with my husband watching Disney DVD’s, or rushing to pick up the mail for fear that the kids would recognize the return address. No more clandestine meetings with the teachers to ensure that the kids wouldn’t miss any significant school work or notification to the hockey coach about repeated absences. What was I possibly going to do with all of the time that had allowed me guilt free indulgence into my own childhood memories? Gone would be the incredible pleasure I got in just envisioning their adorable faces when we finally told them.
So it’s a normal Tuesday dinner at our house, or so the kids think. Having carefully crafted our script my husband and I begin with “Have you ever been made a promise that someone didn’t keep”? Knowing that my daughter had archived the promise of a
trip to Disney for retrieval in 2007, I was sure that this question would trigger an outburst of “you promised you would take us when we were 8 and 10!"
Not quite. They didn’t take the bait, in fact there was no taking the bait until we blatantly stated that we had made plans to Trick orTreat with Mickey Mouse, the bags were packed and we were leaving in a hour. Definitely an attention grabber if you need one!
In complete disbelief my daughter excused herself from the table to scope out the luggage and to ensure that mom and dad had not had more wine than usual.
Yup, you may have heard it too, that piercing squeal of delight as she made the connection with the Magic Kingdom luggage tags and the blatant hints that mom and dad had been dishing out for the last 10 minutes. There it was … finally, finally, finally! The big blue eyes wide in disbelief, lots of tears, and 2 children engaged in Olympic size hurdle jumping! (Did I hesitate to mention that there was significant water loss on behalf of both parents.)
Off we head to the airport with enough energy in the back seat to propel the aircraft on our own. I must add that there was tremendous relief in the car as we followed the airport signs and boarded the monorail to Toronto’s terminal 1.
Finally as we boarded the aircraft and taxied down the runway, my daughter turned to me with a face
full of tears and said “It really, really is true mamma, and I want to do the same things for my kids”.
There it was folks, the crowning glory. Who knew that those few innocent words would far surpass anything that I could have ever imagined. It was MY fairy tale come true and oh how appropriate that the beverage cart was moments away!!
So whether you choose to surprise or not to surprise, how does one go about planning their dream vacation to Disney World? Tune in next week!
Karen is an urbanmoms.ca member and a Toronto based mom of 2.