Disney

Two Christmases ago, I decided I had so much love for my kids that I would- - no, not die on the cross for them, but take them to Disneyland on my birthday. I hate Disneyland. I wasn't raised being a Disney kid. I didn't morph into one as an adult. I think you're either a Disney kid or a Magic Mountain one. I was definitely a Magic Mountain one.

As we waited to go on the Sleeping Beauty Ride, Jory shouted out, "You stop that, Skeletor!"

I frowned. What was he talking about? Maleficent was talking. Didn't he know that? I realized why would he know that?

We were a Scooby Doo, He-Man, Jem and the Holograms, Veggie Tales sort of family. The only consistent bad guy was He-Man's nemesis, Skeletor. I felt bad. I let my dislike of all things Disney turn my baby into some social misfit. How do you not at least know the names of the bad guys in the Disney movies? Or the characters in the movies? You don't know because your mother never let you watch them. Well, that's not entirely true, the baby and I did watch like Sleeping Beauty II in Hanoi.

I vowed my kids wouldn't be mocked when they got older. Though it did make it nice going through Disney because they didn't care about seeing any of the characters. It helps the only characters they knew were Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald from Mickey's Clubhouse.

So after the holidays, I went to Goodwill and eureka there they were, prove God didn't want His children to be outcasts either. A mom had cleared her entertainment center of all Disney movies. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Pocohantas, Aladdin were sitting on the shelf. I picked them all up. My kids didn't have to fall in love with Disney, but they were going to know their Disney character. Then every Friday after I dropped the kids off at AWANA, the baby and I would stop by Goodwill and see if they had any movies we were missing and they did. So now we have a respectable Disney collection and the Disney knowledge is sinking in.

When the baby is modeling a dress, she twirls around and says, "Cinderella!" Yep, it's sinking in, but Signing Times beats a Disney movie any time so SCORE one for me. To quote Miley, "It's the best of both worlds."