Disney House Spokane Valley

Happy December to one and all! What an incredibly special month. Make sure to savor each day because it will be over (along with 2021) before you know it. Here are tonight’s five topics…

The Disney House Is Back – Last Friday after WSU defeated UW in the Apple Cup, Sid and I took the kids on a short drive to look at Christmas lights. We couldn’t resist taking them to the house that makes us smile every year. If you live in Spokane, head north and visit the infamous “Disney House” in West Glen. I wrote about this magical display in detail seven years ago and it hasn’t lost an ounce of charm since then. In fact, the charm has only increased because now I can share it with Sloan and Beau. The people at this home use Disney cutouts and LOTS of lights to make you believe that you actually are at Disneyland. Make sure to check it out.

A look at the Disney House as we approached it on Friday night. The house is located in north Spokane.

Our House – In a humbler display of Christmas illumination, this is what our house looks like. We once again went with laser lights. The two projectors we own were given to us by David Russell, the video director at Coastal Carolina University and a good friend. He let us take them off his hands in 2016, a year after the laser light phenomenon burst onto the scene in 2015. Those projectors have been with our family for six holiday seasons now and have shined on houses on both sides of the country.

Our house is illuminated by the laser light projectors we received from a friend in 2016.

A Different Way to Countdown to Christmas – Last year, Sloan had a chocolate calendar to mark the days until Christmas. Each day she would punch out a small portion of the calendar and eat a piece of candy. This year we are going more educational and healthier. Instead of counting down with chocolate we are counting down with books. Starting yesterday, Sloan locates a pouch on the advent calendar that corresponds to the day of the month and pulls out the mini book that is inside. We then read it to her. Some books are holiday-themed and some are not. Sloan is an avid reader and this is right down her alley….but to be fair, she is an avid candy eater too.

Sloan holding the Advent calendar she is using to countdown to Christmas this year.

Thanksgiving Dinner – How could I publish this Thursday Rundown without showing a photo of what I ate last Thursday? As usual, our Thanksgiving feast was a good one. People always ask about the lasagna. Here’s the deal: My mom is full Italian and her family always ate lasagna with Thanksgiving dinner growing up. The tradition continued when my mom had her own family. This part of the Thanksgiving meal is so beloved by me that Sidney once made lasagna for one of our South Carolina Turkey Day’s several years back.

You know you wanted to see what I ate for Thanksgiving, right?

Dining Rooms Open at McDonald’s – Here in Spokane, the dining rooms in our McDonald’s restaurants were closed for an extremely long period of time because of the pandemic. Recently, they finally opened back up meaning that Sloan can now eat her coveted Happy Meals inside. It had been so long that I didn’t even recognize the décor and chairs/tables that McDonald’s is now using. Although we prefer to order our fast food from the drive-thru and take it home, every now and then we do find it nice to eat inside. Now that the dining rooms are open we are crossing our fingers that the play places will open soon as well.