Happy St. Patrick's Day

Disney

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Today is a great day for celebrating the luck of the Irish. I hope everyone has a fun day of laughs and leprechauns, parades and corned beef. And don't forget the Irish soda bread, it's fantastic!

Wishing you a rainbow 

For sunlight after showers -

Miles and miles of Irish smiles 

For golden happy hours -

Shamrocks at your doorway 

For luck and laughter too, 

And a host of friends that never ends 

Each day your whole life through!

Annie Leibovitz Disney Portraits

I don't know if you've seen them, but Annie Leibovitz has been recreating great Disney scenes in photographs for the last several years. She's used well known stars in these recreations, from J-Lo to Julie Andrews and everyone in-between. These photos are fantastic and fun and I look forward to each new addition.

The latest three photos, released just last week, feature scenes from The Little Mermaid, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast. To recreate these scenes, Disney has enlisted the help of Queen Latifah, Alec Baldwin, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Bridges, and Penelope Cruz. The photographs will appear in the March 28, 2011 issue of People, as well as the April issues of O - The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Essence, and InStyle. They are part of Disney's new Memories campaign. 

I have to say, I think my favorite of these new photos is Belle and the Prince with Jeff Bridges and Penelope Cruz. They look so sweet together and perfectly capture the "Moment of Beauty" Disney is advertising. Check them out for yourself and let me know your favorite.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, all! I hope everyone has a chance to spend the day with loved ones young and old. I love spending the day with young Bean, who thinks it's the perfect excuse to request gifts to show my love for her. It's fun to see all of the Valentines she has received at school and help her sort out her candy. This year she's getting a new Cinderella doll that sings. It was too cute and I just couldn't pass it up when I found it on sale. It only sings for about 30 seconds, but that's really all you can stand after about the 30th time, so in all, it's a fun toy. Anyway, enjoy the day, and if on no other day, remember to tell your loved ones that you care.

Photo of the Week

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Just in time for Chinese New Year, I thought I would share a photo from last year's Flower and Garden Festival. I know this year is the year of the rabbit, but somehow, I missed that one. Anyway, enjoy!

Disney Parks Memories Sweepstakes

If your family is like mine, you probably have lots of great memories of times spent in Disney Parks. Disney is celebrating these memories with a sweepstakes in the month of February. There will be four weekly drawings for family vacations in one of the Disney Parks. Weeks one and two offer 4-days, and 3-nights at Disneyland in California. Week three is 5-days, 4-nights at Disney World in Florida. The final drawing, in week four is for 7-days, 6-nights at ANY Disney Resort, worldwide. Each trip includes airfare, ground transfer, hotel accommodations, and park tickets. Winning any of these trips would be an awesome chance to create new family memories with Disney. Visit the site daily to enter the sweepstakes and to download that day's free daily digital download. The downloads so far have been super cute picture frames to display treasured Disney memories. You can also share your own memories on the site through photos, videos, and stories. Disney will share these memories along with others on the site.

Also, the parks will be celebrating guests' memories created within the parks. Most nights at either Cinderella Castle in Florida or It's a Small World in California, photos and videos taken by PhotoPass photographers will be projected onto the building as part of a new celebration called "The Magic, The Memories & You!" They will feature images captured in the Magic Kingdom or Disneyland that day celebrating all the fun and excitement guests have enjoyed. The photos fly by fairly quickly, so you might want to capture the show on video, just in case they've used a photo of your family. This new program sounds like it will be a lot of fun and should get people sharing their memories and creating new ones featuring Disney.

Happy New Year!

Disney

Well, it's a new year, so it must be time to start anew. Time for making resolutions to have a better year than the last, to be better people and to treat others better. I hope that you have better luck keeping your resolutions than I do, but I resolve to do better. Happy New Year, Bonne Année, Guten Rutsch Ins Neue Jahr, Próspero Año Nuevo and Bliadhna Mhath ùr. However you say it, may this new year be better than the last one!

Merry Christmas!

Jim Henson Company

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! We're looking forward to a possible white Christmas here and all of the kids are very excited. It should be a lot of fun! So, once again, Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Frohliche Weihnachten, and Nollaig Chridheil.