Happy New Year - can't believe it's 2011!

I've just got back from a really lovely, but tiring, few days with the family. On Thursday (30th) Mum, Grandma, Ed, Emily and Daniel got here at around lunchtime, followed by Dad in the evening, and then on Friday (31st) Uncle Richard, Louis, Molly and Dorothy joined us.

At work on Thursday I was Dale in Adventureland, and my friend Nina was Chip, so I had quite a nice day. I was excited too because my family were arriving, and Nina just seemed to be generally excited,and our ACC was quite funny so all in all it wasn't too bad. We only did half of our sets too which was quite easy. My family managed to come and see me on a couple of the sets, and it was the first time my Grandma had seen me at work so she got a photo.

After work I walked to the Sequoia Lodge hotel where we were staying, and went up to find everyone. We had dinner in one of the hotel restaurants that night and Dad arrived at about 9pm just after our meal. He was really drunk because he'd come on the Eurostar in Business Premier so he'd taken advantage of the free booze! After dinner we went for a drink in the hotel bar, there was a big open fire and the hotel is themed around an American countrified log cabin feel, so it was really festive.

The next day, New Year's Eve, we headed to the park in the morning and saw 'The Art of Animation', where we learnt to draw Donald Duck - I was quite pleased with mine. We went on the Backlot Tram Tour, and then went back to the hotel to meet Uncle Richard and the kids. We had lunch in the Rainforest Cafe which was sooo nice, and then I had to go to work at 3.30pm (until midnight). It was a good, but busy shift, as I was on three parades. I was Jessie on DOUD at 5pm, then Chip on Fanti at 8.30pm, and finally Jessie again on Stars and Cars at 11pm. I really enjoyed all of them, especially seeing my family en route. The last one, Stars and Cars, was the most fun. I think it was because it was late at night and everyone was getting excited for New Year's, so the cast were quite excitable. My Woody was really good as well, so when we get off of our cars to meet and greet and do the show, we spent ages with my family. Woody was mucking around with Ed, making 'I'm keeping an eye on you' gestures and pointing to his sheriff's badge. He didn't know Ed was my boyfriend but he told me afterwards he had guessed because of the reaction of my family! We danced around loads and posed for photos when we weren't in the show, and I had a really good time - Jessie is definitely one of my favourite to play. When I have the pictures from Dad I'll make sure I put them on here.

After Stars and Cars we ran to the bus, because if we were too slow we would have had to wait on the bus until the fireworks were over at 12.15 because of health and safety backstage. Luckily we made it in time, so when we got back to EPC at about 11.40, there was a manic rush to get changed and give our costumes back and clock out so we could make it to the park in time for midnight. I ran most of the way to Main Street and met my family by the Christmas Tree by about 11.50pm, so I did quite well! Main Street was really busy but the atmosphere was lovely and everybody was drinking champagne. The fireworks were really good too - I didn't have the best view of the castle because I got there so late but I could still see most of the fireworks. I was still excited from doing Stars and Cars with my family there, so I was on a bit of a high, which made the fireworks and atmosphere even nicer. I stayed for a bit afterwards with Ed, and we then went back to the hotel bar to meet my family. I got changed and did my make up and we just sat in the bar for a couple of hours drinking next to the fire. It wasn't the wildest of New Year's Eves but it was still really nice to be in Disneyland with my family and boyfriend.

The next day we had a lie in until 11.30am, although Uncle Richard and the little ones had got up and gone to the park at 8.30am! We spent another nice day in the parks and then Grandma bought us dinner at the Blue Lagoon next to Pirates of the Caribbean which was really nice. We stayed in the park until it closed at 10pm, and went on Big Thunder Mountain, which is so cool in the dark, and Space Mountain twice.

Today ( 2nd), we got up really early (although nobody's alarms went off due to an iPhone bug) and headed to the Studios, hoping to get on Crush's Coaster. The park didn't open until 10am though so we went to the other park instead and went on Peter Pan's Flight and Buzz Lightyear's Lazer Blast before heading back to the Studios and straight to Crush for 9.50am - the queue was already an hour! We queued anyway because the ride is so good and the kids really wanted to go on it! After a few more rides we headed to the Village for lunch, but all of the restaurants were full so we ended up in Rainforest Cafe again! I had something different this time though. I've just been dropped at Pleiades by the family - Grandma started crying because I'm going travelling so soon which started me off!

I can't wait to get home now - only three more shifts! I have two whole free days before I come home though on Thursday and Friday so I think they will probably go really slowly as I count down the hours.

Probably only one or two more updates before Disney is all over, and then the countdown to travelling begins!

xxx