Thread by @GailSimone

Okay, can I share a wholesome story?

It’s short and a little selfish but really was lovely.

Here’s a thing. We have a dear friend who has become a brother to me, he lives in Florida and works at Walt Disney World.

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We have ended up adopting him, his brother, and his mom as family, and they have done the same for us, just found family all the way.

We haven’t been able to see them of course, since the pandemic, and it sucks, but we keep in contact all the time.

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This year, because we’re stuck at home, hubby and I had considered buying a big @LEGO_Group set, something from the Disney Parks. We had always considered buying one but had just never pulled the trigger. We were going to get either the Disneyland Train or the Castle.

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But those were REALLY scarce and hard to get for the holiday. So we asked our friend to keep an eye out for one of them, since they are ridiculously expensive aftermarket online.

He kept an eye out for us, but with all the uncertainty, it didn’t happen getting one this year.
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Silly, but still a little sad. Christmas was always very weird when I was a kid, it was rarely a super-happy time, I and I thought hubby, Son and I could put together a huge Lego Disney thing for fun.

Florida friend gets an employee discount so that made it even more appealing.

All things considered, we had an almost miraculously nice Christmas, with only worrying about the world as a cloud, really. We all had a lovely time; food, musics, making decorations, the whole thing.

A little bummed about the Lego thing, but I mean...

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I messed up the numbering again!

Anyway, that was a very small disappointment and obviously WE ARE GROWN ADULTS but it woulda been fun.

Yesterday, we get a huge, huge package on the #magicporch. No idea what it is.

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It’s from our friend in Florida. It’s heavy and huge.

It takes up most of our dining room table.

He has told us that he has thousands of Vinyl LPs and he knows we collect, so I thought he sent a ton of records.

Which he DID.

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As FILLER.

:)

Seriously, he picked out a ton of albums in very nice shape, and he did it in two categories;

GOOD

And

WEIRD.

So there’s two stacks.

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The GOOD.

And the WEIRD.

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But that was mostly the gag gift (although there’s some great stuff!).

The other thing was in this bag. I put a new Xbox controller next to it for scale. It is huge, you could fit two Tom Cruises in it. Toms Cruise? Whatever the plural is, in he’d go.

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So some of you may remember, when we first were talking about buying one of these huge sets, I did a poll here. Should we get the Castle, or the Disneyland Train Station?

You guys chose the Train. They are similarly priced.

So guess what.

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He sent us this.

I might have screamed a little.

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Okay. Again, there are so many levels to this. When I was a kid, I always wanted to do the train-around-the-Christmas-tree thing, we’ve never done it as adults, either.

But this will be amazing for that.

But more than that...

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When we first took our son to Disneyland, we were kinda poor and he was only five years old. It was a big deal to go. And we did everything, and of it all, we asked him what his favorite thing of the entire trip was.

It was the train. No kid picks the train. But he did.

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So this one thoughtful wonderful gift brought back beautiful memories AND made us miss WDW less AND fulfilled a childhood dream...pretty amazing.

I know I’m an adult, but COME ON, look at this thing.

If you’re a park fan, this is the STUFF.

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So we got this late yesterday, we were almost ready for bed. We thought, we have to open this in the morning, right? It’s too late to start tonight, right?

Long story slightly shorter...

We stayed up until two am last night building Lego and listening to Bruce. :)

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So...here’s what happens when you open the box. :)

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It is bags and bags and bags of tiny bricks!
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The freaking INSTRUCTION booklets are the size of a bible. :)

There are four!

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Here’s our progress...completed train car, partial caboose and partial engine. We haven’t even started on the station!

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Completed caboose. It has a little tea set inside.

The cars link magnetically, there’s lots of track, and you control the whole thing with your iPad or phone!

This is a pretty happy happy thing and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LEGO.

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So, Matthias, in wonderful bastard...THANK YOU, THIS IS AMAZING.

JOYYYYYYY!

Best Christmas! TRAIN!

@MatthiasBe