Who's Who Wednesday: Introducing new writer Heather Mandosa

Hello!  My name is Heather and I am a 35 year old self-confessed Disney freak.  I have been married to my college sweetheart for more than eleven years.  We are parents to two wonderful children.  Zachary is seven and Keira is five.  Both kids have December birthdays within two weeks of Christmas so we are just coming down from the chaos and wonder of the season.  Aside from being a mom, I am the Guidance Content Specialist (Guidance Director) for a school district in a suburb of Boston.   It would not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me that I am a Disney nut.  I love all things Disney.  I enjoy talking about the movies, the music, the parks and the history.  I have had the good fortune to be raised in a house where travelling to Disney became something we did quite often.  My parents became DVC members in 1992 which has paved the way to continued family vacations with a new generation.  Now rather than a trip that includes my parents and younger brother and sister, we can be seen at times with close to twenty people at any one time.   In addition to WDW, I have enjoyed several trips to California to visit Disneyland and California Adventure.  We have also had the opportunity to stay at Disney’s Hilton Head property and travel on the Disney cruise.  When I am not planning a trip for someone in my family, I am helping others plan a trip or trying to find a creative way to get my family back to Disney again.   When I am not in the process of planning an upcoming trip, we still have an opportunity to enjoy Disney.  We have Mickey Mouse floor mats in the car, mugs, plates, toys, and a Disney themed Christmas tree.  We have almost every Disney movie on DVD and keep our VHS players for the few movies we have in that format.   Halloweens in our house have also had a major touch of Disney.  For my son’s first Halloween he was Roo from Winnie the Pooh.  We took him to the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party with friends that year where he was able to crawl through the honey pots in the Hundred Acre Wood play area.  When he was two he was Eeyore.  When my daughter came along they were Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.  Since then she has been Aurora, Snow White and this year she was Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  My son was so inspired by the Maelstrom in the Norway pavilion of Epcot that he was a Viking.  He actually won first place for the first grade at the Halloween dance.   I love talking about my experiences at WDW and Disneyland and love to hear about other people who have had the opportunity to go.  I look forward to the opportunity to share some ideas and suggestions.  I also hope to learn something new for the next time that I have the opportunity to travel to Florida or California or possibly to a resort outside of the United States at some point.