Christmas

We had a fun Christmas this year. We were at home for Christmas for this first time since the babes were just a few months old. It was nice to be low-key and mellow and just enjoy being together. Also, this was the first year since the three were born that I really enjoyed decorating for Christmas. Before it was just too much of a stress.
The two pictures above are of the three at our parsonage's Holiday Open House. The first picture shows them singing "Go Tell It On the Mountain," led by their Nana.

We had a strange phenomenon occur this Christmas. Around the property, random trees were decorated with tin can lids. When we first noticed them I said, "Y'all, look at that tree. What do you think those are?" Immediately Lucia exclaimed "Goldens!" I don't know where she got that from, but that is what we called them from then on out. The three think that Santa, his elves, and their Nana hung the goldens up around our place.
We went down to Nana and Papa's for Christmas Eve supper and exchanged gifts with them then.



Here is our tree in all its glory. While we didn't get all the ornament on the tree this year, we got the most yet on it. Maybe next year we will fill the thing up.
Santa came and was quite good to us. The favorite gifts were a train table and a Dora the Explorer microphone. Both have brought us lots of entertainment.




Mazie especially enjoyed opening her stocking and opening presents this year. She'd have opened everybody's everything if we'd have let her.






For Christmas Dinner we went to the J House. Lots of family friends came and we all ate tons of delicious food.




We hope your holiday was filled with light and love.

Our Elves

A friend in town loaned us some elf costumes to play with over the Christmas holidays. The children looked so cute in them and had a great time dressing up. We even wore the hats when we went to the nursing home on Christmas Eve.


Nothing like three cute little elves to get me in the Christmas spirit.

Disney, Continued

Here are a few more pictures, highlights from our time in Anaheim. The children had fun picking out their Mickey hats and getting their names sewn on the back.

My mom also treated them to their first Build-A-Bear experience. The girls picked out Hello Kitties with Tigger and Piglet costumes. Elliott, after much prodding, finally chose a monkey with a Buzz Lightyear costume.
I skipped out on the Build-A-Bear experience to visit with one of my close high school friends. Keri and I had a wonderful, though too short, time catching up. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Here the four are at the base of the beautiful Christmas tree at the beginning of Main Street. Notice how wonderfully cooperative (sarcasm) Lucia is being.

They loved playing on the old fire engine. They got to crawl all over it and play with all its features.

Another highlight was getting to see Buzz Lightyear. The children have loved Toy Story the past year so seeing all the Toy Story characters in the parades and out and about was great fun.
We loved going to Minnie's House. She had a cake baking in the oven, dishes washing in the dishwasher, a laptop they could play on. Lots of fun things to do. She was even home one time we went to her house.

I loved the Dumbo ride when I was little. It was such a treat for me to be able to ride on Dumbo with one of my children. Lucia and I were able to ride on her favorite color Dumbo too--Orange!
Karen treated us to Breakfast with Goofy. This was such a great time; something I would definitely want to do again. Different characters walk around and talk to you at your table while you partake in a huge spread of delicious food. Mickey-shaped waffles, among the treats.

Disneyland was great and we look forward to getting to go back before too too long.

Disney Parades

We had several people ask us what we thought about taking the three to Disney at their age. (They were 3.25 yo.) I had originally thought we'd wait and take them to Disney when they were closer to five years old. I just thought that would be a fun age to go to Disney for the first time.
But I think they had a great time at Disney and the experience was very age-appropriate. I remember going a lot in high school and having a great time. I think there is just such a wide range of things to do so the experience applies to all ages. Plus, there is magic there for all to enjoy.
Some rides were really great for us: submarine, carousel, Dumbo, tea cups, Peter Pan, and, our favorite, we rode each day, Small World. And really, these were enough rides for us.
The two greatest parts of Disney that we enjoyed though, were the parades and meeting the characters. This made all the time, money, and effort worth it. The parades were fantastic. Choreography, music, interaction, costumes, props, floats. All of it was 100% Disney-wonderful.
And at the end of the parades, they always made snow and had fireworks. Magic for children, magic for anyone.





Another thing that I really enjoyed were the holiday decorations. That made the trip extra special. I think next time we plan to go to Disney, I'll try to get us to go during the holiday season. Not only were the crowds tolerable, the place was even more beautiful.