Since the holidays are quickly approaching, I thought it might be fun to share a few of our holiday traditions, starting with some of our favorite Disney decorations.

We have a ton of Disney ornaments that I’ve collected over the years, but I thought I would share a few of them that have special significance to us. In 2007, we decided to take Colorado Boy on his first trip to Walt Disney World, and, since I had never been during the holidays, decided that we would book our trip in early December. We stayed at Wilderness Lodge, which is one of my all-time favorite resorts (Disney or otherwise). During our visit, I visited the gift shop in the Lodge, and found the cutest “woodsy” ornaments ever, but couldn’t decide if I should buy them or not. I showed them to Colorado Dad, who told me to get them, but I was still hesitant and stood in the store for awhile trying to decide. In the end, I decided to hold off until our last day to make sure I didn’t find anything else I REALLY wanted. On our last full day in the parks, we were just leaving our room when we got a call from the front desk. They had a package for us and wanted to know if they could bring it up. Of course I said sure, and a few minutes later, a Cast Member knocked on our door. She handed me a basket full of goodies and said, “Happy Holidays!” and left. Inside the basket were all of the ornaments I had been thinking about buying, along with some treats, like a chocolate “canoe”. Wow! I’m still not sure if the basket was just randomly given to us as part of the “Year of a Million Dreams” promotion or if one of the Cast Members who worked in the shop had overheard me, but regardless, each year, as I put each of the ornaments up on our tree, I remember that trip and what a wonderful experience we had!

Click through the gallery below to see some close-ups of those very special Wilderness Lodge ornaments.