Me and Mom at the Magic Kingdom in 1974

Every year my Mom and I have a difficult time deciding how to celebrate Mother’s Day for a couple of reasons. First, my birthday is at the end of April and my Mom’s is at the beginning of May, so we’ve just had two big celebrations. And second, where we live in the US, we have no idea what the weather is going to be like this time of year. We could have anything from a sunny 80 degree day to freezing cold temperatures with several inches of snow falling! Looks like we’ll be getting the snow this time (ugh!).

So this year, we had the awesome idea to have a Disney Side Celebration in honor of Mother’s Day! We have two Disney World vacations coming up in the next few months that we are busy planning, so this get-together will just add to our excitement and anticipation! Since we have a big snow storm coming in very late Saturday night, we’ve scheduled our gathering for Saturday afternoon and early evening.

Here’s what we have on the agenda:

• Disney Themed Dinner
• Open Gifts
• Disney Photos & Movies
• Disney Themed Games

For dinner, my sweet hubby is going to help with the cooking by grilling some burgers. Grilled burgers are one of my favorite meals and I’m so glad we are going to be able to sneak this in before the snow begins!

Here’s my recipe for the best All-American Grilled Hamburgers:

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

You just mix up all of the ingredients, form into six patties and grill them to your liking. Delicious!!

We are going to keep the side dishes fairly simple. It is Mother’s Day after all, so we want to relax and enjoy it. My Mom is bringing a salad with some cleverly arranged “hidden mickey” veggies and we’ll be serving up a variety of chips in bowls strategically arranged like Mickey’s head.

And for the best part of any meal, dessert, we are going to have a couple of different things. My Mom is making Mickey shaped mini cherry pies and I’m making some super chocolatey Mickey Mouse cupcakes. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!

After dinner, my Mom is going to open her gifts. Since she reads my blog, all I’m going to say is that her gifts and their wrappings fit with the Disney Side Celebration theme. (Sorry Mom, no hints for you!)

Once my Mom has opened her gifts, we are going to look through old photos of past Disney World vacations and watch the latest Disney World vacation planning DVD. As many times and we have been there, it is still fun to watch the planning DVD. It really gets us excited for the next trip!

Last up for the night are Disney themed games. Our entire family has always loved playing games and we actually have game nights quite often. I’ve already got Disney Uno and Disney Monopoly out and ready to go!

I’m really looking forward to our Mother’s Day Disney Side Celebration tomorrow! Happy Mother’s Day Weekend, everyone!

Do you have plans for a Disney Side Celebration this year? Please leave a comment!