Lost

 Lost.

The keys to the rental car were lost, and with them, it felt like all hope and joy were gone as well. As the fireworks were booming and the music blazing, I wanted nothing else other than quiet. I wanted the world to mourn with me. We were going to be stuck at Magic Kingdom at 1:00 am with no way of getting back to our hotel. The car would be towed, I'd have to pay all sorts of fees and fines, and pretty much life as I knew it was over.

And these were the emotions and feelings that Traven was obviously picking up on and feeding into his own anger and sadness. He's been very vocal about wanting to not be on this trip. He's reached an age where to him, friends are everything. The thought of a week away from them, stuck with his parents, was almost too much for him.

We checked at Peter Pan, where I had noticed the keys were gone. We returned to the Cosmic Cafe to look there. No dice. I filled out the online lost and found form that Disney provides. Lori was a source of reason through all this, and I began to have a few revelations.

• I was not the first person to lose keys to a rental car
• I was not the first person to have to leave a car at Disney overnight
• There were taxis that could get us back to the hotel
• I am a member of the National Rental Car Emerald club, which provides me some protection from events like this

And with that, a switch flipped. We watched the fireworks twice. We WALKED onto the following rides;

• Space Mountain (T did it 3 times)
• Tomorrowland Speedway (T twice, Lori once)
• Buzz Lightyear
• Big Thunder Mountain
• Haunted Mansion
• Pirates
• Jungle Cruise
• Peter Pan
• Seven Dwarves Mine Train (waited about 20 minutes for this one)

We hit up every treat spot we saw. Most were hot cocoa and snickerdoodles, but two had soft drinks, popcorn and ice cream.

Just after midnight, I felt DONE. Lori and T did some shopping, while I went to City Hall to figure out what to do about the car. As I told the very friendly hostess my story, about how the keys must have gotten caught up in my mask (CURSE YOU, COID),  she said, "Well let's see if we had some keys turned in.". She goes into the back, and moments later comes back with keys to a silver Nissan Rogue! It was a Christmas miracle! I asked her what to do if they weren't my keys. She smiled and said, "Darling, I'm already two for two on rental cars today.". I knew I wasn't the first!

Disney's Very Merriest After Hours event at Magic Kingdom was a solid 10 out of 10. The event was sold out, but I never felt crowded. I didn't wait in lines, nor did I struggle to find places to view the fireworks. 

Side note: mobile ordering is the BOMB! I ordered our dinner while waiting to enter for the event. It was so convenient and saved a lot of time. And the food at Cosmic Cafe was actually pretty good.