The park plays different music. It has new stations for candy, characters, and shows. The life of the park lifts up and becomes, in my opinion, even more playful and fun. It's difficult to describe, so you'll just have to go to a party and find out.

I would recommend that you watch the second parade. There are two showings, and the second is typically less crowded. I also would advise you not to watch the parade on Main Street as it gets crowded quickly and it is hard to make it back into the other areas of the park after the parade. I always like watching the parades in Frontierland. the very beginning of the route. Then I know exactly when it will reach me and I will be able to go explore other areas of the park while others are still waiting for the parade.

If you think that Disney is all kids stuff and make-believe, you've obviously never been to Epcot, especially during Food and Wine. Food and Wine is the grown up party of Disney. Epcot's World Showcase, a mini presentation of 11 different countries, transforms into a festival of food and drink and entertainment. 35 food stalls serve tastes of various ethnic and exotic foods and drinks to sample. (Check out this year's selection here.)

I love Food and Wine because it forces me to go slowly and enjoy conversations, flavors, and sunsets (because sunsets at Epcot at the best.). Plus, I love trying new things, and Food and Wine gives me a way to sample many different foods without having to buy a whole meal.

The best way to do Food and Wine is to go with friends. Sharing is caring at Food and Wine, because then you can try a dozen different things for only a few dollars each. Don't let this deceive you, though; buying food and especially drinks will add up, so watch your budget.

Lastly, if you think that you're going to be creative and get punny shirts about Food and Wine, think again. I counted 212 different matching Food and Wine pun shirts one day. 212! Etsy shops are getting rich off of this.

The last pre-Christmas thing that I want to talk about is Dapper Day. This one is harder to do for everyone because it is only on two days in the fall and two days in the spring. This year it will be on November 17-18. Dapper Day is organized by an outside organization which seeks to bring back the charm of retro fashion by organizing two days where their members (and others who'd like to join) dress up in vintage fashion to go the the parks.

My experience with Dapper Day was a joy! Although it was a very crowded day (it was also Mickey's birthday), the crowds were polite and polished. I loved dressing up with my friends and enjoying a grand day at the parks. If you are at Disney during Dapper Day, I highly recommend that you adorn something sophisticated and stroll about with the hundreds of other dapper folks. If you're looking for something special to wear, I'd suggest checking out The Dress Shop. It's a line of Disney dresses inspired by characters and attractions. I wore the Cinderella inspired dress, and it is my favorite dress ever!

And in those weeks of intense living, God pressed a strong theme into my soul- be fearlessly faithful and faithfully fearless. 

I went into the intensive with so much fear. I feared making the wrong choice. I feared deciding what I wanted to do with my life. I feared that I would make a fool of myself as a dancer. I feared wasting money. I feared a lot of things.

Oh, but God knew what He was doing.

On the flight to NYC, I started reading Louie Giglio's book, Goliath Must Fall. In the book, he discusses specifically how fear must fall in our lives. 

Let's talk about timing here.

"Fear grips us whenever we believe that apart from, or in spite of, our best efforts, something undesirable is going to happen and we can't stop it." (page 54)

Then, to top it off, God did something fun. As I sat reading in Bryant Park, eyeing the Empire State Building every now and then, the book mentioned something very familiar. Louie Giglio started to tell a story, and the story was set in none other than the LaGuardia Airport, where I was just hours ago.

It was as if God waved His arms and said, pay attention to this. I am going to use it in your life. 

"We understand that we must hear Jesus and we must see Jesus. We must keep the focus of our hearts on him. That's because hearing Jesus and seeing Jesus and focusing on Jesus builds up our faith, and faith is the antidote to fear. The opposite of fear is not being bold and courageous. The opposite of fear is faith. And faith begins by us saying, 'I have confidence in God that he is bigger than this giant.'" (page 56, emphasis mine)

That's when it began to click. If the opposite of fear is faith, then we are called to be fearless faithful and faithfully fearless.

We are invited to live fearlessly faithful lives. For although faith is the antidote to fear, it takes a little fearlessness to be faithful. It takes guts to trust God. It's not easy to be faithful when the world tells us to fearfully cling to all of our rights and pleasures.



To be fearlessly faithful is to trust God with a scary amount of faith. However, we don't fear trusting God, because we know that He is faithful. His faithfulness invites us to have faith in Him without fear. To be fearlessly faithful is trust that Jesus is worthy of all of our lives: every act of obedience, every heartfelt prayer, and every step along the way. It is courageous faith, but not faith in courage.




We are not only called to be fearlessly faithful; we are also called to be faithfully fearless. We are called to a life that is, for lack of a better word, scary. It is true that God provide for us a shelter from the storm. Sometimes, though, He tells us to go out upon the waters and have faith that He won't let us drown. Sometimes, we have to get a little wet.



We need to use faith in order to do fearless things. If not, fear will crush us before we even step outside. Jesus has given us a great commandment, a wonderful mission. It is about time that we faithfully pursued fearlessness for the sake of the kingdom of God.




The real test of faith for me in NYC came on my first Monday, the placement class, the fearful day that would determine the rest of the program. It was one of the biggest things that I feared, but that morning I began to see what being fearlessly faithful and faithfully fearless truly meant.

I walked into that placement class and actually had fun. Joy filled my heart and replaced competition with compassion and comparison with confidence. Suddenly, I felt free. Faith grew in my heart that day.

And the next day.

So this is my reminder for myself and maybe for you, too, dear reader. Will we accept the challenge to live fearlessly faithful and faithfully fearless? Will we be courageous with the amount of faith we place in trustworthy Jesus? Will we live boldly because of our faith in Jesus?

Princess Hannah