The I've taken care of him, now he will take care of me - Merry Christmas to us" pre-TR There's no better time than December - Making the Dinner Plans **Updated 11/25** About This Page:

[kmurburg]

Hi all! This is my first serious attempt at a complete TR. Lately I’ve been reading some great ones that have really helped me get a Disney fix when I had no trip planned or even the slightest chance of a trip in the near future! That “no trip in the works” situation got cleared up in September when DH had his big surgery. Before I ramble any more, let me introduce our little cast for this trip…

Me – Karen – the true Disney nut in our household. I got a late start on the whole Disney World fanatic stuff since I was in my 30’s when we took our first family trip to WDW in 1992. My kids were even past those prime “let’s go see Mickey Mouse” years that are so cute! I have made up for my sorry lack of trips by going 6 times since 2000 when DH and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary with a Land/Sea Disney Cruise on the Wonder. Now days, if anyone mentions WDW to me, I’m ready to pack a suitcase and hop on the next flight to Orlando!

DH – John – my wonderful husband of 27 years. His only downfall – he’s not quite the Disney nut that I am. To his credit, he enjoys most of the same things in the World that I do, like TOT, RNRC, EE, Splash Mountain, BTMRR, Illuminations and all the fireworks shows. He just doesn’t feel it’s “necessary” to go to WDW at least once a year. He does however, try to indulge me whenever possible and he did encourage me to go with my DSis and her family for her DDs’ first ever Disney trip in October ’06. See – he really is a Disney softie!

Now a little background to our story (and how I came up with the TR title)…

After our last trip to WDW in April ’06, I had accepted that John was done with Disney for a while due to his physical condition. In June ’06, he started dialysis treatments for kidney failure and we were in the process of arranging for a living donor transplant (our wonderful 21 yo son was volunteering to be the donor!). With being committed to 3 dialysis treatments a week, it was hard to work out even a long weekend sort of trip. He didn’t want to go to a visiting dialysis center in a strange city where the nurses or doctor didn’t know him, so we just stopped traveling for a while. I tried taking our “kids” – all early 20’s – to the beach for a short stay in August ’06 but it felt too sad to leave him home alone, although he reassured us all that he wanted us to go and have fun. Over the next year, DH readied himself for the transplant. There is so much more involved in the whole process than I would ever have imagined! The transplant team wants to be absolutely sure that the donor and the recipient are both in their best possible physical condition before any surgery takes place. Both my guys were checked from stem to stern and pronounced fit for surgery in March ’07. Our 2 DD’s traveled with us to Baltimore on St. Paddy’s weekend for the surgery that would change our lives. And it did – just not in the way we expected! What could have been a complete disaster turned into a blessing in disguise! DS and DH had both been in their separate surgery suites and the operations had begun. Just as the real work was beginning on DH, he suffered a heart attack on the OR table, and all thought of transplant on that day was finished. Instead, he had a quadruple coronary bypass and DS was stitched back up (his kidney intact and healthy still!). We thought John’s chances for a transplant were finished and even though his surgeon was very encouraging about trying again after he was healed, we were just plain terrified! After lots of talking and praying and encouragement from everyone we know, John and Matt (our DS) decided that they would try the transplant again. So 6 months (almost to the day!) after the first attempt, my boys were back at the hospital for another try for a miracle. This time, everything went perfectly and my 52 yo DH has a nice young 21 yo kidney filtering away in his body and NO MORE DIALYSIS TREATMENTS! Our son has healed nicely and is back to his regular activities and work schedule and will be starting back to college in January. This process has been an amazing physical and emotional journey for us all. My loving husband could see what all of the care giving stress and worry have done to me and to make me happy, he told me (way back in July before the surgery!) to plan a trip for the 2 of us to WDW in December. We both figured if the surgery didn’t go well or if he didn’t heal well, we could just cancel whatever plans were made and wait until a better time to go.

Next up…”There’s no better time than December – let the planning begin!”

[Colexis Mom]

Boy, you guys have been thru the wringer and back I'm so glad everything turned out well and that your DH is able to make the trip with you

[MickeyMAC]

Great start, I'm so glad your DH is doing well and that you have a new "life"........your DS is a true hero.

[mcc0313]

Great start....I am so happy DH and DS are healing nicely and that DH is on the road to recovery....

Loved hearing the start to your trip and now how wonderfully amazing this trip will be for you both especially knowing the road it took to get there....

[snoozin]

Great start. Can't wait to read more!

[Nala]

Karen,

While I already knew your story, your words of what you and your family have been through brought me to tears. I cannot think of two more deserving people to be taking a trip to WDW.

I look forward to your pre planning details and then the details of all the fun and memories the two of you made together.

[Jookiba]

What a truly inspirational story! I am so thankful the men in your life have healed and that DH is back on the road to recovery! Your DS sounds like a real trooper!!

Blessings and for you and your family!!

[Minnie Lor]

What an amazing journey that you all have been on! Major kudos to your son. I hope that you have a super trip.

[vfair]

What a wonderful story and a great way to celebrate the successful surgeries!

[tammyd_rn]

Thank you for sharing. I have to say it brought tears to my eyes. I am so glad to hear everyone is healing nicely. God is a true provider!

[DyanKJ130]

What a magical story! So glad things are continuing to work out for everyone and that DH can once again travel!! Can't wait to hear more!!

[stefffe]

wow....am glad to hear that all are healing beautifully!!!! cant wait for more details of your trip

[disneydani]

Originally Posted by Nala

Karen,

While I already knew your story, your words of what you and your family have been through brought me to tears. I cannot think of two more deserving people to be taking a trip to WDW.

I look forward to your pre planning details and then the details of all the fun and memories the two of you made together.

As usual, Nala's eloquent expression is exactly my sentiment!

I know this will be a truly magical trip.
danielle

[bsblady01]

I hope that you and your dh have a magical time at the world

[kmurburg]

Now that DH had given me the thumbs up to book a trip, I started looking online for packages. We had agreed to make this trip for a full week. Our last few Disney trips had been for 4 days and we always were trying to wring the most out of every minute and see and do EVERYTHING! This time we want to take a less frantic pace and just enjoy each moment. Of course, that way of thinking may just lead to more planning than I’ve ever done before.

After checking at work with my scheduling supervisor and getting her blessing for a week off during the coveted holiday season, we decided on the beginning of December as “the perfect time” to go. I didn’t want to go too close to Thanksgiving or Christmas Day and I thought it would be awesome to be at WDW for Mousefest. I also knew that I wanted to see the World all dressed up for the holidays so the first week of December seemed to fit all of our criteria.

Now that we had our time frame set, it was time to decide where to stay. We normally stay at POR which we really enjoy! But, this time, we thought we deserved to treat ourselves and stay, for the first time, in a deluxe. I’ve always thought that Wilderness Lodge would be beautiful, especially at Christmas time so we thought we’d price a stay there or the Beach Club or Boardwalk Inn. Of course I had to look at the Grand Floridian and the Poly too – just because those are my ultimate dream resorts! We love the atmosphere at POR so much, I knew it would be a challenge to find another place we’d love as much and that I wouldn’t regret spending the extra $$$ for. I was also feeling a little guilt about just John and I going, especially during the holidays. None of the kids could get away from school and/or jobs and we REALLY needed to do this! To lessen the guilt a tiny bit, we are paying for DS to take a little trip to New Orleans this week with some friends of his to visit some other friends who recently moved to Baton Rouge. We’ll work on something for the DD’s later! Guilt can be a terrible / wonderful thing – depending on which side of the guilt trip you’re on!

Anyway, after seeing the prices and room types that were still available (things were booking up fast!), I thought we’d be the most happy at the Wilderness Lodge, especially since I imagine that the holiday decorations will be fantastic in that rustic setting and with the big fireplaces and all. I priced out a package for a courtyard view room with a king-size bed, park hopper tickets and the dining plan. Then, instead of going ahead and booking this deal, I hesitated. It just seemed too strange to book a trip that we weren’t positive that we’d be able to take. I felt that we’d be hogging a good room that someone who was definitely going would not be able to have. Guilt again! After about a week of wavering back and forth about what to do, I went ahead and decided to book the package. (I’m sure you all know what happened next! ) So I got online to the Disney site and retrieved my saved offers. Well, my package with that specific room type was no longer available! Also, comparable packages at other deluxes were also booked full. We’ll be “settling” for a courtyard view room with a queen-size bed and a bunk – even though we’ll have no use for the bunk. Finally we had a great resort reserved complete with our park tickets and the DDP. This trip will be the first time John has experienced the dining plan and I can’t wait for him to see how much nicer it is to have table service meals as opposed to all quick serve counter meals for the whole trip!

Coming up…Time to make the dinner plans – or – How do I know what I’ll be hungry for 4 months from now?