Well, here it is. The last month of 2016. And I'm blogging about it on January 1st, 2017.
Objective complete.
I promised Katie updates over Winter Break and I pulled it off.
I'm impressed with myself.
Very impressed.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I proudly present....
DECEMBER!
We found out during the last week of November that Katie's GI doc was moving away and that we'd get a new doc. Good news is that treatment does not need to change and she's doing well.
Because of our trip to Cali, we missed our first two co-ed soccer games.
So, the first Friday in December brought on our first game.
I think we won it, I can't remember.
We don't usually win.
At all.
The next day was a Holiday Bazaar at our old preschool.
I went and picked up some xmas presents and the kids got to hang and get crafty with Teacher Dorothy.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I proudly present....
DECEMBER!
We found out during the last week of November that Katie's GI doc was moving away and that we'd get a new doc. Good news is that treatment does not need to change and she's doing well.
Because of our trip to Cali, we missed our first two co-ed soccer games.
So, the first Friday in December brought on our first game.
I think we won it, I can't remember.
We don't usually win.
At all.
The next day was a Holiday Bazaar at our old preschool.
I went and picked up some xmas presents and the kids got to hang and get crafty with Teacher Dorothy.
That afternoon, it was IV infusion time.
This one went swimmingly with only one poke to find a vein.
Got it first try.
No tears this time around.
Mikey and I have been making our way through the Harry Potter series.
He's seen the first 4 movies and we've read the books.
Our current agreement is that he can't watch the corresponding movie until we read the book.
So, we're working our way through Order of the Phoenix right now.
Sometimes, after I'm done reading he takes over...
I check on him about an hour after I leave for the night.
This is a common occurrence.
Katie spends her idle time in school doodling.
They're pretty cute.
I'm really impressed with her characters feet.
Feet are hard.
Mikey's been into creating weird meals lately.
Here's his spaghetti and meatball sandwich.
Chomp.
He said it was really good.
On Thursday, the 8th, it began to snow.
It snowed all night and low and behold the next morning there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground prompting a.....
SNOW DAY!!!
Huzbend worked from home so he could enjoy the festivities.
It was nice packable snow.
Katie took advantage and built a pretty big snowman.
There was also enough to go sledding too.
We put Mikey to work clearing the snow off the sidewalks and streets.
Katie made ANOTHER snow man in our backyard.
Since we don't get snow here often, you gotta make as many snow men as you can before it melts.
It had already started to rain by this point in the day.
Believe it or not, this is the next day.
See, the rain washed it all away.
That made it nice and muddy for xmas tree picking.
We set our guard dog down next to any "good" trees we found.
We finally selected our tree and Mikey and Katie took that sucker down.
Not really.
Huzbend did the cutting.
Next....needle shake out and baling.
The kids just can't get enough of baling.
Ralph thinks their nuts.
So do I.
That, right there, is just ridiculous.
The next day, the tree was up and ready for decorating.
We decided to have the tree upstairs in our main living area this year.
The past two years, it's been in the basement so that Ralph couldn't get to it.
He sniffed it like, maybe once and has totally left it alone.
Katie had confidence in him.
I did not share that confidence.
But he proved me wrong.
Monday, I went out and purchased silly Santa pajamas for everyone so we could take some pictures to send Granma. She wanted to make a family xmas card with everyone in the same outfit.
I tried hard to take some nice family photos.
I really did.
But, the Santa PJs inspired a higher level of nuttiness.
Mikey was laughing so hard he couldn't sit up at one point.
Ralph didn't help.
Hilarity ensued.
"I just don't get it....."
The rest of that week was pretty insane.
Xmas was fast approaching.
There was shopping to do.
I UPS'ed presents out to all.
PTA presented some challenges to my sanity - we weren't making enough money to fund a supplemental math program for all the kids in school and because of that snow day, one of our big events was cancelled and needed to be rescheduled and the leaders of the event were arguing endlessly about it.
By Thursday the 15th, I was ready to scream.
It was ugly.
Friday the 16th was do or die present wrapping time.
The kids would be home from school for Winter Break the following week, so I had to get it done.
Took all day.
Phew.
Friday also brought news that the math program I was stressing about was mostly funded and I told the people arguing about the cancelled event to take a break for the holidays and they stopped incessantly emailing.
That night was another indoor soccer game, which we won. Crazy. I know.
Annnnd, Huzbend injured his calf.
Not so good.
Saturday came and it was my birthday.
It was a lazy morning.
The kids were watching a Tinkerbell movie and so, I sat and watched.
A friend asked me to take Ralph for a walk and eventually I obliged.
When I came back, there was a sign outside the garage pointing me to go in through the front door because my presents were downstairs.
We ate lunch, I sat down to read the news on my phone.
The kids were watching something.
And then Huzbend says, "Okay. It's time to go. You need a blindfold."
They ended up putting a t-shirt over my head and ushering me down to the car.
We were going somewhere.
Maybe Canada? We'd talked about visiting there over the week.
I heard a dog crate rattle. The kids tried to cover up the fact that Ralph was in the car.
We eventually stopped and he told the kids to open my door and tell me where we were headed.
They handed me this envelope....
Wait. What?
Yep. Disneyland for my birthday.
Crazy.
And, I had no clue.
Seems both kids were in on it, they knew for weeks and a good friend (the one that asked me to go for a walk that morning) was also a co-conspirator.
That hour I was gone on the walk, they packed everything and threw it in the car.
Yep. They packed for me.
And the kids packed for themselves using a packing list Huzbend had printed for them.
We were stopped at the place where we drop Ralph off when we go on vacation.
From there (after a quick stop for an extra epi-pen at home) we went straight to the airport.
And about 4 hours later, we were checking in at the Paradise Pier hotel and eating dinner at the PCH Grille's Beachside Bonfire Buffet.
We were starving and so plates were cleaned.
Multiple times.
This was Mikey's plate. I can tell because of the remnants of Mac n' Cheese.
Huzbend passed along to the staff that it was my birthday.
So, they sang and I got a Mickey cupcake.
Which was absolutely delicious, by the way.
I also got this button that I was required to wear for the next two days.
It was off to bed.
Disneyland was the next day!
The worst part of any Disney vacation is waiting for my kids to wake up.
I was awake at, like, 5am or something.
Actually, come to think of it, I really didn't sleep at all.
There was too much research to do!!
What special holiday treats did we have to sample? What rides were changed for the holidays? How crowded would it be? What time was the parade (surprisingly NOT at 3pm!)? The fireworks?
Who can sleep when DL is just WAITING there for you?!?!?
Especially when it's all decked out for the holidays?!??!
To say I was a bit excited would be an understatement.
We finally got them up and about at 7:30 or so.
Official opening time that day was 8am (early entry was at 7am!).
We were there just a bit after official opening.
I admit the kids didn't really eat brekkie.
The horse-drawn streetcars were making their way up and down Main Street.
I was on a mission, so I didn't stop to get a picture of the HUGE xmas tree.
My first destination was Haunted Mansion Holiday.
A must-see.
Haunted Mansion with a "Nightmare Before Christmas" overlay.
Huzbend and I had seen it in Tokyo Disneyland a loooong time ago.
It was awesome to be able to see it in English this time.
Katie hates "Nightmare" because the songs get stuck in her head (and I think she thinks it's a bit creepy). But, she enjoyed the creative way the wove the movie into the ride.
And who could resist the ball room scene with the real evil gingerbread house with gingerbread smell piped in! Seriously.
Our next step was picking up Fastpasses for Indiana Jones (everyone was tall (and healthy) enough!) and then we headed over to visit Trader Sam for the Jingle Cruise.
Then we hit up Indiana Jones.
On our initial ride, our vehicle didn't work properly so the cast member at the end allowed us to ride again.
Very nice of him.
He also wished me a Happy Birthday.
We headed to Pirates after that where the line was non-existent.
We got a preview of our dinner to come. We were going to eat at the Blue Bayou!
Finally!
And not only that, it was linked to a dining package which would allow us to view the Paint the Night parade from a perfect spot.
After all this excitement, and no brekkie, the kids were starving.
Time for Dole Whips.
And what better place to eat them, then inside the Enchanted Tiki Room.
Next up, it was time to conquer another mountain.
One that NOONE got to ride last time we were here.
Mikey was sick and the two times Katie tried to ride it (once with me and once with Huzbend) it broke down and they cleared the line.
The Matterhorn.
CHECK! Off the list.
There's a yeti in there, you know.
There were lots of laughs.
We took a moment to stop for the obligatory castle photo.
Somewhere in here we ate lunch at the Village Haus, which in Disney World is owned by Pinocchio but in Disneyland it's not but his picture is everywhere. Weird. He should sue.
The sun was starting to shine pretty good now.
So, we decided to cross Splash Mountain off our list.
The kids got soaked.
I put them in the front because I thought they wanted to get soaked.
Turns out they didn't.
Oops.
There was some whining after that.
Especially when they had to walk with soggy pants.
We decided to find a seat for the Christmas Fantasy Parade...and to have some snacks.
Cotton candy and a Mickey ice cream sandwich.
The sun was nice and warm, so the kids laid out their legs to dry out.
Prior to the parade, two local marching bands went by AND the Disneyland Band stopped to play right in front of us.
The parade was cute. Very festive.
You can watch it here if you want.
The music though...it was the same through the whole parade.
The same song for 30 minutes.
If I was a performer, I think I might go crazy.
I can still hum the tune right now and it's been two weeks.
The best part of the parade was the part with Pooh and his friends riding on sleds.
Eeyore brought up the rear pulling a sled that was broken behind him.
He had the crowd laughing out loud just by playing up his already sad face.
Lots of "AWWWWW's" when these snow people came by.
Goofy and Pluto hammed it up.
Goofy was actually walking around the float cooking stuff and throwing things at Pluto.
It was impressive.
Equally impressive was that he was allowed to walk on the float like that. Usually the performers are attached to poles so they don't fall off.
You know what the reindeers mean......
...Santa was next and so was the end of the parade.
Thus began the MASS EXODUS off of Main Street and into the rest of the park.
We chose to head towards Tomorrowland.
By this point in the day it was SUPER crowded.
The wait for Hyperspace Mountain approached two hours. But, we got in line anyways.
We had time to kill.
It was the longest we waited. It turned out to be about an hour wait.
It was SO worth it.
I cried a little bit at the end.
Happy tears.
DL's version of Space Mountain is SO MUCH better than WDW's.
It's a newer ride system, you can sit next to somebody, they have digital projections on the walls inside, it's pitch black and there's stereo sound piped in from huge speakers next to your head.
Well, Hyperspace Mountain is Star Wars themed. You're in the middle of an X-Wing/Tie Fighter battle. Star Wars soundtrack and sound effects, lasers, all while on a fast roller coaster.
It is...beyond words.
Well, for a Star Wars fan.
You must go. And you must go now.
(sneak peak here)
After a stop in the SUPER crowded Star Wars store at the exit of the ride, we decided to continue our Star Wars theme and do Star Tours.
Mikey was not a happy camper.
I believe he was channeling pre-Vader Anakin.....
It was about 4:30ish.
Problem was that dinner wasn't until 8 that night and the park was getting more and more crowded.
It was so crowded that we thought if we left we might not get back in.
So, what better way to stave off grumpiness than to find a seat and eat more sugar?
That's what Disney parks are all about.
We parked it outside the French Market restaurant and got some Mickey Bars for the kids.
Huzbend went around the corner to the Mint Julep Bar and stood in what was probably a 30 minute line to pick us adults up some Mickey Beignets.
The kids chilled out, literally.
As soon as the sun disappeared, the wind picked up and the temp dropped severely.
The scenery was nice though.
Ahhhh, below you can see the coveted Mickey Beignets with candy-cane powdered sugar.
OMG. These were delicious.
I would say, that they were, GULP, better than Dole Whips.
Yep.
I said it.
So, we thought it was crowded before.
It was even more crowded now.
Lines were everywhere - for bathrooms, for beignets, for restaurants, rides, food kiosks, to get into stores. For everything.
Except not for Tarzan's Treehouse.
So, that's where we went.
After, we decided to head to Main Street to do some souvenir shopping before the fireworks began at 7pm.
It was only 6 or so and tons of people were camped out on the curbs up and down Main Street getting ready to move into the street. The Hub was a nightmare.
I was able to stop and get a picture of the tree this time though.
The only souvenir Katie wanted was light up Mickey ears.
She got 'em.
I was pretty sure the "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks were going to be cancelled.
It was quite windy and there was also a wind warning that had been posted that morning on the weather apps.
We didn't bother finding a spot to watch and instead tried to make our way back to It's A Small World to possibly ride that.
Mistake.
It was a dead end.
Toontown had shut down for fireworks.
People were camped out in front of the ride to watch fireworks and the ride itself was shut down.
I knew most of Fantasyland shuts down for fireworks.
ANNNND, because of the Star Wars Land construction, there was no way to get to the other side of the park without going through the Hub which was jam packed with thousands? a million? people.
There was no helping it.
We had to brave the Hub to make it to the other side of the park before the fireworks were cancelled..
You can't really see how many people are in this picture.
It was a sea of people.
Cast members were out directing traffic in these little highways that branched through the crowd.
We had to move single file one way to get through.
It was insane.
And just a bit scary.
They did march us right past the front of the castle.
We weren't allowed to stop to take a photo, so I had to snap a side shot.
PHEW! We made it.
We headed over to Big Thunder Mountain and as we were standing in line the announcement came over the speakers that the fireworks show was cancelled for the evening.
Good on us for making the decision to skip.
I do not know how they got all those people out of the Hub and off Main Street.
Maybe they didn't.
The first showing of the Paint the Night parade was happening at 9pm.
Maybe they just all stayed there.
Anyways, we were where we needed to be.
DL's Thunder Mountain is also an upgraded version from WDW. Must faster and twistier.
And, thus, much more fun.
Especially at night.
After the ride, we walked over to New Orleans Square and sat down to wait for dinner.
It was so cold that we bought a way-too-expensive Haunted Mansion blanket to cuddle under.
Finally.
It was time for dinner.
Here we are warming up after our wait for a table.
It is very, very dark in there. So, it's hard to take pretty pictures with my point and shoot camera.
The pictures don't do it justice.
Katie loves the gluten free rolls at Disney so much she hugged and kissed them.
Dinner was delicious.
I'm glad that we finally got to eat here.
Another check off my Disney bucket list.
When we finished dinner, it was quite late.
The 9pm showing of Paint the Night was over and the park had cleared out.
But, Peter Pan's Flight was still at 45 minutes.
Figures.
Somewhere in here we rode Snow White's Scary Adventure as a walk-on and wanted to ride Alice in Wonderland, but it was down.
We decided to take it easy and ride the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage.
After that, it was a nice calm stroll down Main Street to our viewing area for the 11pm Paint the Night parade.
Notice Katie wearing our newly acquired Haunted Mansion blanket.
It was hilarious.
We were the only ones in the roped off viewing area.
The ONLY ones.
It was in a great spot right across the street from the front of the train station.
Paint the Night is my all time favorite Disney parks parade.
Hands down. The best.
I didn't take video and not many pictures as I just wanted to watch.
You can find plenty online if you want to see what the hype was about.
My favorite thing about DL is the Disney Uber-Nerd factor.
There are Disney groupies that scream and cheer for the parade performers.
In turn, the performers up their game.
They add energy to an already fabulous atmosphere.
What a fantastic way to end the first day of my surprise birthday trip to DLR!
That was THE longest that our family has ever spent in a theme park.
We got to DL at about 8:30 or so in the morning and did not leave until about 11:30 that night.
It was a LOOOOOONG and sometimes over-stimulating day.
There were quite a few grump outs here and there from both kids (mostly Mikey).
But we pulled through by taking breaks at the right times and also....
pumping the kids full of sugar.
I don't think we got to bed until, like, close to 1am that evening.
Next day, we were off to Disney's California Adventure.
Friday night, I had made lunch reservations for 11:30 as part of a World of Color dining package so that we could get good seats for the show. See, I'm constructive when I can't sleep.
We let the kids sleep till maybe 9ish and then wandered over.
First things first, we got fastpasses for Soarin' Around the World and then it was off to ride California Screamin'.
Katie's favorite roller coaster EVER.
This time, we could ALL ride it!
And ride it we did.
It then became Mikey's favorite roller coaster ever.
There was no wait for Ariel's Undersea Adventure.
Yay for ClamMobiles!
After this, we made our way back to Soarin' Over the World.
Eh.
It was okay.
I liked the original Soarin' better.
Old Soarin' got a bigger reaction from the theatre full of people than this version did.
Old music was better too.
Didn't help that we were in the bottom row.
Oh well.
The line for the Grizzly River Run ride was super short. So, we hopped in line hoping to get it done before lunch. But there was a delay and the line stopped moving.
We were going to be late for lunch, so we had to escape the line and move on.
11:30.
And just in time too, Mikey was not a happy camper.
Lunch time!
Okay. That wasn't lunch.
Lunch was okay. We ate at the Wine Country Trattoria.
Dessert made up for the mediocre meal.
Ooohhhhh, so yummy!!
Since we were right across from Radiator Springs, we decided to stop by and try out Luigi's Rollicking Roadsters.
While we were in line, there were technical problems. They had to call in the tech guys and then pull one of the cars off the stage. After that, we were good to go.
Luigi's is a trackless ride system. There are about 12-15 cars in which you can ride in. Luigi sings a song and the cars (cousins) all dance to it. It's really fun.
Happy smiles all around when we got off this one.
Radiator Springs is decorated to the nines for the holidays.
Radiator Springs Racers had way too long of a line. So we headed to the other side of the park. The kids had their eye on the Tower of Terror, but we passed this up for Monsters, Inc.
We once again walked by ToT. The line was at 60 minutes and the kids didn't seem enthused to stand in the line. And, I was perfectly happy with that.
We instead made our way to A Bug's Land to cut through to head towards Paradise Pier.
I made everyone stop to ride Heimlich's Chew Chew Train.
Just because.
I like Heimlich.
And the first time we visited the DLR, I was pregnant with Katie and it was one of the only rides I could ride.
Nostalgic.
After the excitement of Heimlich, we stood in a super slow motion line for Midway Mania.
That has to be THE most boring queue ever.
EVER.
It felt like we were there three hours when the wait was only 30 minutes.
We finally made it to the ride and I kicked Huzbend's butt.
Again.
Note: He is the residing champion at Buzz Lightyear. I can't even come close to his scores.
Mikey did pretty good this time too.
It was getting close to dinner time. We had reservations at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel.
We made our way out past Grizzly River Run using the Grand Californian's exit/entrance.
He's a big bear, that grizzly.
His cute sweater lights up at night.
See?
Before heading to dinner, we made a pit stop at our hotel to pick up warmer clothes for that evening.
I stopped to take a picture of the beautiful nautical themed tree in the lobby.
They had a really cool system to call elevators that I had never seen before.
There were four elevators. You selected the floor you wanted to go to and the screen told you what elevator would come get you.
When we got to the room, we found Giorgio Monkey like this.
We made our way to Goofy's.
Here's his xmas tree.
Yes. That's a goldfish in a bowl right in the middle.
I want my tree to look like this next year.
We had a little audience with the chef himself before being seated for dinner.
Dinner was a wild affair, as all character buffets are.
The stars of Goofy's Kitchen are Chip, Dale, Pluto and Minnie.
Throughout your meal the stop at the table to visit with you and then every 15-20 minutes music plays, the characters parade around and everyone twirls their napkins in the air (a la Chef Mickey's in WDW).
Parade in progress....
Chip and Dale were the most interactive.
They had the kids giggling with their silly antics.
Kissing hands, using props and answering questions with pantomime.
("Why does Dale have two teeth and you only have one?")
Pluto gave giant hugs and big kisses.
Minnie was very polite.
Oh yeah. Remember that birthday button I was wearing?
Pretty much every cast member that looked at me over those two days said Happy Birthday to me.
Even ones that were just walking by yelled it out.
At dinner, I got a song and a Goofy themed cupcake.
So, I ate this cupcake along with about 30 other bite-sized desserts they had at the buffet. I think they had more dessert options than actual entrée options.
What would you expect at a place called Goofy's Kitchen?
It was a filling meal, to say the least.
The kids had a blast too.
After dinner, we headed back to DCA.
It was still too early to find our spot for the show, so we swung by California Screamin'. It was a super short wait. We rode it again.
Just as fun as the first time that day.
I refused to ride Mickey's Fun Wheel.
Ew.
No thanks.
I did not escape Goofy's Sky School though.
I hate wild mouse coasters.
Mikey held my hand through it so I wouldn't be scared.
It was just about time to sit down so we'd get a good seat.
We hit Ariel's one more time and the kids got to ride in their own ClamMobile this time.
About halfway through, the ride stopped for a bit.
It was good timing, as the kids clam had just swung sideways so we could see them.
This is what you do to retain your sanity when you're forced to listen to "Kiss the Girl" over and over and over.....
We exited the ride. The kids decided ToT was still too long of a line and so we sat down to wait for World of Color - Season of Light.
Mikey played video games.
Katie took lots and lots of selfies with my phone.
Before the show they have a competition using Mickey's Fun Wheel. During the "Fun Wheel Challenge", a series of colors is played on the wheel and then you repeat them using an app on your phone. The person with the highest score gets to control the colors on the wheel for 30 seconds.
It is totally worth it to get the dining package so that you can sit right up front along the rail in what's called the "splash zone".
There is nothing in front of you.
The jets of water look super huge and impressive.
Last time Mikey and Huzbend missed this show.
This time we got to watch it together.
World of Color was at 9pm and ended at about 9:30.
That gave us 30 minutes of park open time to do one last thing.
The kids chose Radiator Springs Racers.
We got all the way to this point annnnd then the ride shut down.
Technical issues.
It was iffy if they would get it running.
They actually had to do a reboot of the entire ride to get it working again.
But, finally, after some quick work, it was moving and we were able to ride.
What a way to end our day.
Whooo-hooooo!
Because of the delay, DCA had been officially closed for close to an hour. Everyone had already left.
We made our way slowly to the exit taking in the sights and sounds of an empty holiday decorated theme park.
Not much to say about leaving the park that night.
I always get misty eyed.
I didn't think I'd be back in a Disney park so soon.
What a gift. What a birthday.
Icing on the cake, I got one last "Happy Birthday!" as I walked out the turnstiles that night.
Back to the hotel we went and were serenaded to sleep by the Disney Resort TV's Princess Bedtime stories.....
Thought we'd escape the pool?
Nope.
Our kids have not met a pool they didn't like.
Or a hot tub.
After the pool, we ate lunch at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney.
The kids were excited to eat in a restaurant with the name Ralph in it.
After, we wandered back to our hotel to wait for the shuttle.
The kids watched some funny Goofy cartoons.
Alas, it was time to leave.
The worst part of any Disney vacation is the leaving part.
But, judging by this picture, it's a good thing we did.
We spent the next few days recovering.
I'm not sure we did that much except watch TV, play video games and organize pictures from our impromptu vacation. Stuff like that.
Soon it was xmas eve and time to decorate the gingerbread house.
"Heh, heh, heh...."
"Mmmmmmmmmm"
Katie's masterpiece.
And, Mikey's.
Mikey made these weird creations out of Rollo's.
He shoved jellies into the bottoms of the Rollo's and let the caramel run down the side of his house.
Obviously, I did not use enough royal icing to hold the house together.
10 minutes after the kids were done, the roof began to slowly slide off.
I tried to rescue it and have Huzbend take pictures before it totally fell apart.
But, it wasn't to be.
Whoops.
Well, it would still taste good anyways.
The kids were actually up early (for them) Xmas morning.
The sun was still coming up.
I sent them upstairs to wake up their dad so that we could get started.
Ralph got some toys too.
Thanks to all for the wonderful presents!
Katie's favorite book series right now.
Yep. I went there.
Katie got a box of gluten free Lucky Charms.
"WHOOOOOAAA!"
"THAT'S AWESOME!"
Here are some xmas morning reactions.....
I even got a good one from the oldest child.
Poor dog toy bunny.
It lasted just long enough for us to finish opening presents.
And thus began the playing with the toys.
This was one of the first things set up.
Katie dove into Pokémon Moon.
And, thanks to a misplaced drum stick whack, Mikey used his electronic drum set to put a crack in his kindle screen.
What can I say, he's talented.
I just put this here because it was cool.
No other reason.
I found these glasses that look like old 3D glasses that show you different shapes when you look at lights.
I wanted to see if it would work.
Snowmen!
At lunchtime on xmas day, we went to see Rogue One in IMAX 3D.
It was pretty good. Huzbend liked it a lot.
Mikey said it was better than Force Awakens....but, come to find out he didn't really understand what happened at the end. It took much explaining to hash it out.
Katie said it was okay. In typical Katie fashion, she did not wear her 3D glasses and hid her face when it was a "scary part".
That night we had a turkey dinner. I asked if we could have one since we didn't really have Thanksgiving. It was super yum.
I also made candied yams, which I pretty much polished off myself over the course of a few days.
The day after xmas, Katie had a friend over.
I helped Mikey stay out of their way and I think Huzbend was playing video games or something.
The next day, Katie went over to another friends house and we took Mikey and Ralph to find some snow to play in.
We didn't end up finding snow, so we took a hike.
Mikey was the leader and picked a hike that was all up hill.
We walked up so much that the rain that had started to fall turned into gloppy snow flakes.
At this point, only four days later, the gingerbread house was gone.
Katie ate most of the candy while Mikey and I ate the actual gingerbread.
On Wednesday, we had a giant playdate/sleepover day with some friends.
After dinner at our place, Huzbend led the kids in a giant Nerf fight.
First, they used all our cardboard boxes to create armor and shields to protect themselves.
Ralph's just waiting patiently for a Nerf bullet to come his way.
He likes to make them "disappear".....
Here's the crew discussing the rules.
Katie did not participate in the Great Nerf Battle, but did create a shield.
The kids watched The Secret Life of Pets and most were asleep by between 1-2am.
The earliest risers were up about 7am.
I got some gf pancakes in them and they settled down to video games and Legos until it was time to go home.
That evening, we were invited to a friends house for some authentic Mexican home cooking done by her husband's sister who was visiting from Mexico.
It was called "Torta ahogada"
She also fried up some tacos with beans and potatoes inside. I don't remember the name of those.
It was SOOOOO good.
The meal was accompanied by some Mexican sodas as well. Most notably, glass bottle coke made in Mexico with real sugar.
"Oh-ho-ho-ho".
Huzbend added a bit too much chili sauce.
The next day saw us in Seattle watching a production of "The Little Mermaid" at the 5th Avenue theater.
We stopped for a little TCBY after the show with some friends.
Most of New Years Eve Day was spent playing with stuff.
Dinner was yummy.
Some kind of Asian inspired flavor pork chops.
Huzbend likes to get all creative meal-wise when he's home on vacation.
Katie deemed it a success and ate one and half pork chops.
Mikey had pizza.
Oh well.
You win some, you lose some.
New Year's Eve was spent at a friends place.
We played games, ate chips and tried to figure out how to get Dick Clark's New Years Eve to play on their TV.
Their cable provider hadn't hashed a deal for pricing with the network and thus refused to broadcast.
We also played with their super cute new puppy until he was exhausted.
We didn't end up getting Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve to work, so we watched the local Seattle countdown and "Space Needle" fireworks show.
Oh well.
Everyone was dressed for the occasion.
After celebrating the actual New Year with a whole lot of poppers, we got down to business.
A quick toast with sparkling grape juice and cider and then it was on to the uvas.
Our friends have a tradition involving grapes.
It's a Mexican tradition, originally from Spain.
You have to eat 12 grapes, as fast as you can, while making a wish for each one. If you succeed, then you'll have good luck for the rest of the year.
Katie was the first to finish her grapes.
I think Mikey might've been second.
Huzbend almost choked on his.
And, that, my friends was how we said goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017.
What a month December was.
I'm kinda sad that Winter Break will be over in a day and we'll have to go back to normal.
I'm not looking forward to "real life" creeping slowly back in - appointments, IV infusions, school, PTA, afterschool activities and such.
Guess it's always good to slow down once in a while and enjoy it.....especially if you get to go to Disneyland for your birthday!
Best Birthday/December EVER!
