CHRISTMAS EVE...
Grandma B. arrived on the morning of Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas with us. We have been planning for this fun week for several months now and the day had finally arrived. We picked her up at the airport at around noon. With the busyness of the Holiday season, I had not had time to get groceries for the week. This "procrastination" on my part turned out for the better as Sierra, Grandma, and I got to sit down and plan our meals for the week and make our list. Then we took Grandma on a Flores Family Shopping Expedition. As always, we started off at Costco for our jumbo items, like laundry soap and meat, and as is my usual custom at any store, we decided to check out what was on sale, which led us to what I feel will probably be in the top five of my greatest deals of 2007! The Gingerbread house kits that normally sell for like $14 or so were on sale for just $2.97!! At this awesome discount, we decided to get one for each of the kids and have a Gingerbread house building party for Christmas Eve! We had so much fun building houses.
Most of us teamed up, Jett and Gma B. built a "Nightmare Before Christmas House" with upside down gingerbread men falling off the roof and gingerbread men with bulging eyes and one leg.
CHRISTMAS MORNING.....
Sierra and Blaze woke up bright and early...as usual, much earlier than our Christmas morning reverse curfew of 7:00 am. Of course, they tried to wake us up numerous times before that, but I continued to tell them to go back to bed. So they patiently (or probably impatiently) waited in the bedroom until 7:00 am on the dot and then started pulling off blankets and banging on doors.
I do have to give them credit though for waiting in the bedroom for what they tell me is 2 hours on Christmas morning, and I do believe they waited....either that or they are VERY good actors, because they were so excited when they saw what Santa had left for them. Sierra was thrilled to finally have a camera of her own (since I'm very stingy with mine after she and Blaze bro ke my first one), and Blaze was happy to see his long awaited telescope.
DISNEYLAND.....
Wednesday night we headed off for our first ever 2 day trip to Disneyland. Thanks to Mom, we had rooms in Pomona at the Shiloh Inn. We arrived at around 10:00 at night and found the first room be nice and cozy. Then, when we went into our other room, BRRRR...it was FREEZING! So we turned on the heat, but after about 40 minutes or so, the room was still ice cold. We had to call out the maintenance men at about 11:00 at night and they came to the room and fixed it, so we ended up finally getting the kids to sleep around 12:30! YIKES! So we took off for Disneyland early the next day and WOW there was so much more waiting than I remembered. There was such a huge line to have our bags checked and then another huge line at the turnstiles. Luckily we already had our tickets so we didn't have to wait in THAT line! Once we were finally in, we headed for Tomorrow Land and Kolt went on his first amusement park ride ever on the little rocket ships! He was so excited and ended up loving it! Mom and I wandered around in search of fast passes and short lines while Mike and the kids waited in line for the rocket ships. We were fortunate to catch the Buzz Lightyear ride, Star Tours, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience (none of which I had been on before....Buzz Lightyear was AWESOME!) all that morning, plus Autopia. There was also a really cute Christmas Parade with a very catchy Christmas tune playing over and over that was pretty hard to get out of our heads for the rest of the day, but that was okay.
We had to wait until almost 10:00 pm to get on Indiana Jones...Mike and the kids waited in line while Mom and I waited with Kolt and then Mom and I got to use the switch pass to go up the fast pass line, which still took about 20 minutes, but it was well worth it. Once we got the necessary ride on Indiana Jones, we decided to head out. Unfortunately, we headed out in the wrong direction!! Long story short and minus the cuss words (this blog is G rated after all!), we ended up wandering around until about midnight looking for the truck! Not a fun ending to a fun day! Thankfully, we finally found the truck and got back to the hotel safely, kids (and adults!) were wiped out and we settled into the hotel room to rest up for another day at it. The next day, we parked in a closer parking lot, but had to literally fight for a tram ride...CRAZY!! Then, even though we missed some of our favorites at Disneyland (like Space Mountain, Matterhorn, and the Tea Cups), we opted for a MUCH calmer day at California Adventure! Wow, what a difference!
The atmosphere was so much more relaxed than at Disneyland...and Kolt was SO happy to see his favorites Lightning McQueen and Mater!! We also saw the Playhouse Disney show which was so cute and fun! We took in the Soaring over California, which was a first for me and it was so amazing! Then, Mike and the kids went a little crazy and rode the Grizzly Rapids ride (they couldn't resist a sign that said "5 minute wait time") and got soaked...it was only about 60 degrees and overcast, so needless to say they were freezing when they got done! At that point, we headed for the big roller coaster...a first for both Sierra and Blaze, and they both loved it. By 4 pm we were all exhausted and ready to head for the comforts of home, but it was a really fun and adventure filled two days for sure and Grandma B. reports her first trip to Disneyland was a great one!
WINDING DOWN...
Saturday morning we all...very deservedly....slept in until about 10:00 am!! Mike headed out to rescue a vacationer with a leak and we all hung out cuddled up in blankets, watched movies, and recovered from our Disneyland adventure. On Sunday, we went to church, which was not unusual in itself, but Grandma B. accompanied us, which was a great blessing to us. We really enjoyed having her come to church and meet some of our Ward Family, who we love so much! Then, we came home and tried to squeeze in as much more fun times as possible with a marathon Phase 10 Tournament that lasted well into the night!
GOING HOME...
Just as she arrived on an "Eve", Grandma B. had to head home on New Year's Eve. We trucked her to the airport for her long day of travel back home....hugs and kisses....and she was off!
We were so incredibly blessed to have her spend Christmas with us this year and she tells me she had a wonderful time...and she misses us already....well of course, who wouldn't!!5 Comments:
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January 3, 2008 at 4:46 PM
Wow you guys have been having a lot of fun! Your gingerbread houses look tasy, and I love the bulging eyes! I love the picture of Jett hugging his Bumblebee! I mean, who knew a robot could be so cudly; though it was the number one requested toy this year. Love the Tow Mater! He is my favorite!January 5, 2008 at 12:25 AMI have been working so hard after I got home, this is the first opportunity I've had to see how the Christmas Blog entry turned out. I nearly cried. Chauna you do such a great job writing about the adventures. It felt like I was living it all over again. You are the best family a mom could ask for. I am so proud to call you mine. I love you all!January 5, 2008 at 11:02 PMWELCOME BACK!! I was starting to worry. Holy Cow, you guys had a busy, but very entertaining it seems, holiday season. You got some really great pictures. You know that now we are all going to have to follow suit with Lisa and make a book. :)January 9, 2008 at 9:44 PMIt's so fun to go to Disney with family, especially to go on rides you've never been on before! We went with my sister's boyfriend once and he was 27 and never been to Disneyland. It was so much fun. I bet Kolt was super excited to see the Cars characters. I love CA adventure too, even though there isn't the nostalgia there, it will be for our kids though!January 11, 2008 at 6:04 PMBusy, busy, busy. And a move on top of that! Sounds like you had a great time!
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