Christmas

Whew, life has been busy lately. Too busy, really. But that's what the holidays are all about, I guess!

I got a very nice present for Christmas this year- plane tickets! I knew it would be hectic, with our trip to Disneyland earlier this month, but I really wanted to go to Ohio for Christmas. We haven't gone there since the kids were born, but this was a good year to go. They were old enough to be manageable, Kaitlyn was young enough to not need a plane ticket, and they were both oblivious to presents and Santa, so we didn't have to take half the universe across the country with us each way.

The first thing we had to do when we got there was inspect "The Village". My parents collected a lot of Snow Village houses over the years, and I don't think they could fit one more house or person or tree onto their platform beneath the Christmas tree. It even has a train that goes around! My kids loved it.

Then Kaitlyn had to show off her coloring skills. Because that is currently her favorite pastime.

Next up was sugar cookies. Always a good toddler activity, even if the cookies never look very good afterward.

On Christmas Eve, my family does Gingerbread houses. I wasn't sure what my kids would think of this activity, but it was a lot of fun!

Tyler teamed up with Daddy, and they basically let Tyler push everything in once Daddy put the icing down. Very neat and orderly.

But Kaitlyn quickly discovered that she could use the icing bag herself, thank you. So I made the house, and gave her free reign of one corner with the icing and some candies.

Nice and orderly . . .

With some munching on the side (Kaitlyn decided she didn't care for peeps at all) . . .

And then the happy little mess on the other side of the table.

When she got bored of the corner I gave her (she very carefully put a mint on each marshmallow), she expanded to the bowls. And then she told us that it was time to give "quack quack hat".

Ta da! The finished works of art.

Christmas morning was still nice and relaxed. My mother thought it was very impressive that my kids wanted to play with each gift as they opened it, and had to be dragged away to open the next.

Kaitlyn knew just what to do with Tyler's steamroller.

When Tyler unwrapped this truck, he said "look! A tase-a-mur!" We still don't know what that means. But he liked it very much.

Well, that's all for part one- hopefully part two will come soon!

Disneyland!

I don't know why I have been procrastinating blogging lately. I still need to finish the cruise pictures, and I never did mention Thanksgiving or anything else that has happened lately.

Before I forget, thanks for all the votes for giraffe, my pick. When I told Christopher he was losing, he claimed that "I was just pulling your leg anyway, I think it looks like a giraffe too." I told him he was only saying that because he was LOSING!

First of all, Thanksgiving was great. We went over to Christopher's Grandmother's house and had a big dinner there with about 30 people and food for about 70. Every year I make the same two dishes that I grew up with that they do differently, and I think I brought home about 3/4 of each of them. Which was fine by me, beacuse the next Monday I cooked our very own turkey and homemade rolls, and we pretty much had our own Thanksgiving dinner! I was rather proud. I have done the rolls before, but the turkey was a first for me.

Then, this last weekend, we went out to Disneyland with Digicert. (Looking at my blog sometimes, I realize that if it wasn't for this company, I would be sitting in my house every day twiddling my thumbs.) It was a blast! I don't think my kids are the optimal age for it yet, but they still had fun.

Before we went, I had one more craft project to finish. After having made T-shirts for my kids out of an old Digi-shirt, they asked me if I would make something for the newborn babies in the company. Rather than fight sizes for clothing, I opted for bibs. I think they turned out rather well!

Then we were off!

Christopher had to work the day we went, so I was on my own with the kids for that day. I was worried about flying with them by myself, but they were great. The first thing we did was the Carousel. Mostly I think they were just overwhelmed by the people and lights and sounds and colors and everything!

We saw Goofy, but this was as close as Kaitlyn would come. Tyler stayed in the stroller.


The problem was that our hotel room wasn't ready, even though it was nap time and the kids were dragged out of bed at 5am for the flight. So I kept them busy in Disneyland, until this happened. Poor souls.

After nap time, we headed to Bug's Life. I love that area- perfect for toddlers!

Then we found this ship to explore. I think it was meant for summer use with water guns to shoot and the like, but my kids were just excited to find buttons to push and things to climb on without having to wait in a line.

The next day we had Daddy with us, thankfully! We spent a lot of time exploring the island by the New Orleans area. Kaitlyn particularly liked pumping this spigot up and down- she cried when I pulled her away!

And they both love the ducks and birds all over the park.

We weren't planning on handing the kids paddles for the canoe ride- I assumed they would just chuck them in the water to watch them float away. But they dutifully attempted to paddle with the rest of us!

Then we had to head over to get my traditional clam chowder in a bread bowl for lunch. I love watching Daddy play with the kids while I was in line for the food!

That night we had the dinner for the company, and it was wonderful. I wish I had pictures, but I was just keeping the kids in line the whole time! They even gave the kids these cute hats, and Tyler didn't want to take his off for bed that night.

The next morning we had breakfast with the Princesses in Ariel's Grotto. I don't know that my kids were all that impressed, but I thought it was fun! I brought Kaitlyn's Haloween costume to wear that day, because it was too cute to wear just once.

One of the random things our company did to entertain us on the trip was a photo scavenger hunt. It was a lot of fun, and we did a lot of things we might not have otherwise- like the canoe trip! But it also got us pictures like this, for "riding the carousel backwards".

Can you feel their excitement for meeting Lightening McQueen and Mater?

Meanwhile, Christopher and I had a lot of fun taking turns on the "bigger" rides. He especially likes going with Kyle on the water ride here- and goofing off.

Of course, no day in a Tinkerbell costume would be complete without a trip to meet Tinkerbell herself. Kaitlyn liked the Pixie Hollow they set up for her to live in, and climbed right up on a flower.

Tink was great. She told Kaitlyn they needed to go flying together. :)

I would have pictures of our last day there, but it rained, and the last thing I wanted to do was drag my nice camera around. Unfortunatly it was a bit too wet to really enjoy, but we did get a few of the rides that usually have a long line crossed off the list. And as our last stop, we said hi to the Santa in our hotel right as we checked out. Bye Bye Disneyland!