The First Gift of Christmas

We surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland as our "first gift of Christmas" this year. Brad had a conference for work and we were dying to meet baby Annibelle, plus we had some free tickets to Disneyland...three great reasons to miss school for a couple of days and head to Southern California!

 We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon and evening with Brian and Nicole: meeting and playing with baby Annibelle, walking along the boardwalk and enjoying a delicious dinner at the new outdoor mall in their town. It was delightful!

 The next morning, we arrived at Disneyland early and anxiously awaited our turn to enter!

Right off the bat, the kids were able to start getting autographs in their new books. The characters make it lots of fun for the kids. Caleb represented Andrew at all the signing opportunities.

 We rode lots of rides--many that we don't usually get to do because the lines are too long. Andrew's favorite was Dumbo. He rode it twice and even got brave enough to push the lever up and down on the second ride. Besides the train, most of the other rides were "too scary for me" as he would say. We dragged him on just about everything though and he was a pretty good sport about it.

Caleb was really into the pins after getting his new lanyard. He had a few pins before we came and he added a couple more to remember the trip. We saw some seasoned pin traders with big books of pins they had collected over the years. Caleb realized he has a long way to go! Caleb's favorite ride was Splash Mountain. It was their first time to ride it and Caleb got a real kick out of it. They all got a little wet, but Dad got the worst of it.

 Lauren's highlight was getting picked for Jedi training. She had seen Caleb do it last summer, and really had her heart set on it this year. After three attempts that day, she was finally picked for the last show. She really showed Darth Vader her stuff when it was her turn to fight him! Lauren's favorite ride was Buzz Lightyear. She did beat her record and she and Caleb were a great team fighting Zurg!

 The parade was another highlight. We had no idea there were so many people at Disneyland that day because we hardly waited in any long lines. But everyone showed up for the parade and we barely got a good view, but the kids loved seeing all their favorites ride by.

Because the characters were so accessible, we got a lot of face time with a few of our favorites...

 Disneyland is absolutely magical when it's all lit up at night!

We ended the day with a special treat at the ice cream shoppe on Main Street. We deserved it after 12+ hours in the park that day...whew!