Magic.

So every time we go to Disney, I start off thinking the same thing......WHY am I here? This place costs more than a grocery bill for a whole month to get in, the lines are ridiculous, when you finally do get on a ride, it's over before you get the seat belt buckled! The smells (and no, not the good food smells, I'm talkin' about those wonderful whiffs of those waiting in line with you.....:-) are enough to keep you gagging for the next two hours, Mickey isn't anywhere to be seen, oh yeah, I forgot, you have to go to the "Judges Tent" to stand in line for half the day to be able to stand next to Mickey and get your picture made.......what's up with that anyways? The heat is unbearable, you become permanently glued to your clothes with your own sweat, and every time you want a drink to cool off, it costs another five dollars.

People are pushing and shoving, and getting sick on the Peter Pan ride, What? Yes! I said the Peter Pan ride....two rows behind me....puke everywhere.......THAT'S HOT!

Why do people come here I ask? What is so fun about this?

And then just as you are about to vow once again to never come back, out of nowhere BAM!You get sucker punched straight to the heart and reduced to a sentimental bumbling fool with what I have realized is Disney's greatest vice for bringing people back over and over again. As the darkness closes in, the music begins to play by the castle, Jiminy Cricket starts talking, and the fireworks begin, you are finally able to sit down and relax from all the rushing, and you begin to look around. Mostly at your children. You look in their dirty sweaty little faces and there you see it........in their eyes lies the MAGIC that Disney is always bragging about. Gleaming, glistening, shining, MAGIC. In that moment you glance at your husband and catch him staring at the children with a satisfying smirk on his face, and you know that he is thinking the same thing you are.......We have just made another great memory, and the looks on our children's faces make the money, smells, lines, sweat, heat, the woman puking two rows behind me,and no sign of Mickey anywhere to be seen, ALL WORTH IT!!

So alas, we will return to Mickey world again and brave the lines, odors, pushing, shoving, heat, and five dollar water bottles, because in the end it's really about the children, and their sheer and utter joy at just the mention of Disney.

Mickey, you win. Congratulations! You obviously know what you are doing. Wish I did......