This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission when you make a purchase at NO additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our site in this way!
I’ve been keeping news from you and it’s been absolutely killing me: I got invited back to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration!
Part of why I haven’t talked about my Disney Social Media Moms Celebration invite is that I honestly still cannot believe it.
To be honest, I didn’t get an invite at first. I saw the status update that invite had been sent out right before going into a movie and my heart just about stopped.
You see, as someone who has been two years two, three and five of the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, I honestly did not expect to get invited back again. No one knows exactly how Disney Social Media moms and dads for that matter are selected, but I do know that they like to spread the pixie dust around. Every year they seem to include not only bloggers that are new to the event, but often new to the online space as well so that everyone has a chance to experience the magic of this almost indescribable event.
So I stayed out in the lobby during the previews to continue refreshing my inbox while I kept checking back on the Twitter streams and Facebook groups. But alas, no invitation for me this year.
Yet with every ping of sadness or jealousy that crept in, I also felt inexpressible gratitude. I remember thinking back to my first trip to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration when I thought, “if I get invited to nothing else as a blogger, this makes it for me”.
I felt gratitude for being recognized for my passion.
I felt gratitude for being able to experience a place that has brought my family so much joy in a new way.
I felt gratitude for learning new things about all things Disney that I could pass on to so many of you who have come to ask me so many questions over the years.
I felt gratitude about the online friends and their families this experience allowed me to meet and reconnect with in real life.
I even felt gratitude for the beautiful Dooney and Bourke purse that I won at the Disneyland event last year 🙂
But most of all I felt gratitude for the difference it has made in our family. The memories we have been able to make as a result of being a part of the Disney social media mom celebration are priceless.
I’ll never forget my children waving finish line flags and cheering me on as I completed a fun run in Cars Land with a broken foot.
I’ll never forget being able to ride a replica of one of the original “It’s a Small World” boats during its 50th anniversary.
I’ll never forget the first moment we stepped foot in front of Disneyland as a family.
But most of all, I will never forget each and every smile and ounce of laughter that came about as a result of sharing something that unified us in love and laughter.
The magic is real people.
Sometimes our family gets made fun of because of our love of all things Disney.
But we don’t care.
There is something undescribable that happens the minute after we drive under that Walt Disney World sign on Osceola Parkway. We are magically transported from each of our separate lives and brought together as one family with one heart and one plan: to make every moment together account.
While I’d like to say we live by that mission every day of our lives, the truth is sometimes you have to get outside of your every day circumstances to be able to truly take stock of what is important.
Disney does that for us.
So imagine my utter shock when at 10:30 that night, just before getting ready to go to bed, those magical words appeared in my inbox: you’re invited.
I could hardly believe it… and I walked around for the next 24 hours saying those exact words over and over again. In fact, my daughter questioned me about it. While she understood just what a special event it is and that we were fortunate to be invited, she simply couldn’t understand why I was walking around in such a state of awe.
This opened the door for a conversation on expectations and gratitude like never before. Not only did I share much of what I already mentioned to you above, I then asked her to search within herself about her own expectations for life and how she chooses to express gratitude.
So for me, the experience has already been amazing. (Leanne, Maria, Jamie and the rest of the Disney social media gang, in case I forget to tell you later, I had a fabulous time 🙂
Now don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I’m not going. To the contrary, I will be there with bells on. In fact, I can’t imagine ever saying no to this event, so I’m glad I haven’t had to yet.
But just as we never know when and if each today will be our last, either do I know whether or not this will be my final invitation to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.
So with that being said, you can bet that I will enjoy each and every second surrounded by the people I love most and will bring you as much as I can through my blog and social media channels over Mother’s Day weekend.
