Disneyland Hangover

The day after we went to Disneyland we were all pretty beat. What definitely livened up the party was Abby getting her Christmas present early from her cousin. Her very own Cinderella doll, after seeing "Cindy's castle!" They thought there was a resemblance with the big blue eyes....

And to top it off, her very own gingerbread house that she could color on and destroy! Merry Christmas! For about 3 days it was the secret hide-out. It took almost that long for 3 adults to put it together!

The cousins. Cute as can be. I think she likes it.

520. a record number of days where they nap together for at least 30 minutes

521. safe travel for our families going to and fro

522. still getting Christmas cards

523. unbelievable spring weather

524. a good friend learning how to crawl

Gingerbread Man Revisited

Merry day after Christmas! Let's play catch-up from last week...

Abby spent a few tireless minutes decorating the already-ready-to-go-out-of-the-package .99 cent Gingerbread Man from Trader Joes on the blowout sale aisle. Then we went out to church. Then Red got mad that he didn't get a walk that morning. Then he ate the Gingerbread Man. Therefore, Daddy had to buy another Gingerbread Man but this time, cousin Katy Kay got to decorate with her. First thing in the morning no less.

Aunt Christi and Fordy waking up...

The Gingerbread Professional...

And her sleepy cousin...

516. a long, long Christmas morning

517. skype with family we aren't with

518. good cheer & great joy at Jesus' birth

519. living in a place where we can worship without fear

Disneyland!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Warning. This will be the longest blog post ever written. By anyone. In any time zone. Okay. Now I can go on. After I beg of you this one very important thing. Please, oh please, for the sake of all that is good and holy, fork over the extra buck for the Band-Aid brand band-aids. Don't skimp and buy the Target brand. Take my word on this. 8 band-aids in one day. And I'm not talking about my two year old. I'm talking about my wintery cracked hands that refused to heal and split open. Okay. NOW I can go on. That was way too much information.

Abby and Ford's aunt and uncle with cousin Katy came to town in order to go to Disneyland. At first I told them that we wouldn't be going. Abby was just too young. But the more I thought about it, the more excited I got to see it decorated for Christmas. Besides, the kids were free.

My 5-star husband decided to come along. My back thanks him. After carrying Ford in the ergo all day, it was wonderful to have an extra set of hands. How bout this picture quality, eh? Yep. New Iphone! Thank you, Santa (mom and dad)!

Abby was pretty wiped out at noon (when we arrived). Here she is on the tram going TO the park in Aunt Christi's arms. Grant and I were up ahead, holding the double stroller and Fordy next to a family of 8. Do you want to know what it costs a family of 8 to go to Disneyland? Me neither. I never want to know.

Aunt Christi, Uncle Kev, Cousin Katy and Abby with snacks -- we thought those would wake her up. Finally....ready to enter the park!

I headed off to nurse Fordy in the 1950s style nursing room and they went to the Pinocchio ride. Not her favorite. The carousel with daddy made up for it.

Katy and I (and Fordy's head while in the ergo) waiting for Dumbo!

Does this look like the girl who's at the Happiest Place On Earth?

Nope. She needs some food.

Ford on the other hand was thrilled.

Especially with Uncle Kev's glasses...

See? Still needs food.

And then we went on Dumbo... me and Fordy in front, Grant, Abby and Katy behind.

And after lunch, she was back. She was really back after she had her churro and licked all the sugar from the outside. "Churrrrrrrro!"

We were prepared for Abby to be less than thrilled with the characters based on these pictures of me from 1975 - I loved Tigger and Pooh in theory apparently. But Abby loved them all.

And before we knew it (well, not really...7 rides in 7 hours -- it was the busiest day I've ever seen at Disneyland) it was evening and everyone was getting ready to go home. Not before we went on It's A Small World, however. And look at how glorious it looks at Christmas.

Im' pretty sure Katy loved her free ride all day since Fordy was in the ergo. We sure loved being able to zoom through traffic. And after we saw "Cinderella's Castle!" all lit up for Christmas, it was time to go home.

After pizza and some of Uncle Grant's famous stories (Christi: shock, Katy: grossed out, Kevin: hysterical), Abby asked, for the first time in her life, to go to bed.

After an altogether chilly day (58 in Anaheim!), it was altogether glorious. We had hats, we had mittens ... we had each other. Amen.

512. ups

513. fed ex

514. usps

515. hand-delivered gifts

Christmas Church

Last weekend we made it to church (finally!) and it was grand. Abby had a wonderful excuse to wear the Christmas outfit that Grandmama had gotten for her. The kids sat with us through the service and did pretty well (except for the periodic request "to play angry birds, PLEASE daddy!" Her favorite part of the day? Going up and down the stairs afterwards with her pal, Gracie.

I was, of course, just thinking about every persons hand who'd been on that railing and how sick they were. This is what happens after a month straight of someone at our house having snot running down their face and finally getting a reprieve. This is quickly always followed by "take your vitamins!" "where are the probiotics?!" and "eat your brussels sprouts!"

Fordy wished he could be running with them...

509. the gift of the magi

510. amazon prime

511. hearing "mommy! I'm so thankful for you and daddy and fordy!"

Lacing

As the Christmas insanity draws near, our girl has taken up lacing. Who knew it could be so much fun? I guess it's when you lace up some hand-me-down brand new purple "puuuuuurple" converse with yellow laces.

As for Ford? He still just loves to eat things. Even Elmo phones.

504. a grand day at Disneyland (pictures to come!)

505. family we love

506. imessage on my new phone

507. finding groupons the day they expire

508. a tv successfully mounted on the wall

Sugary Sugar Cookies, Sugar!

Although we didn't go see Santa while Grandma was here, we did do something super special -- Abby's first attempt at Christmas cookies! They were (thank you, Alton Brown!) the best sugar cookies we've ever made.

See Abby licking her finger in this picture? Perhaps it's because instead of rolling out the dough on flour, you roll is out on powdered sugar. Yep. Insane. Which meant 9000 washing of hands during this process.

Doesn't Grandma look like Mrs. Claus?

"Now wait till I get it ready, Abby..." which never worked. She was always trying to sneak dough no matter how many times we told her to wait.

Now push it down like this...

"And then move them over to the cookie sheet..."

And waiting to eat them, was, of course, the hardest part. We couldn't even wait to frost 'em. Those little snowmen went down the hatch before we could blink.

Don't worry....Grandma still got plenty of time with Fordy...

501. dressing the tree. again. (don't ask).

502. a full, 5 hour night out - knowing hubby could handle every minute of it

503. opening the mailbox every day to discover new cards! i love this time of year!

Shatterproof Christmas

While my mom was here, we were supposed to go see Santa. Until Abby said she didn't want to. Hmmmm. After all that talk about her wanting him to cut his beard, I guess she's holding out until he does. So, instead, we went to Home Depot. A terrible replacement. But somethings needed to get done! Grandma had the brilliant idea of buying shatterproof balls for the bottom of the tree. Brilliant! I would've just spent the rest of the month arguing everyday with Abby about why she "can't touch those pretty Waterford ones."

She was obsessed with hanging each one just perfectly...

Fordy watched cheerfully...

And at the end of it all, the tree ate Abby.

Followed by she and Red taking a well deserved nap.

498.making our own Christmas traditions

499. Righting wrongs

500. figuring out the morning nap and it stretching for 1.5 hours

There's No Place Like Home

While I was putting Ford to bed last Wednesday night, I started to hear some crazy gusty wind outside. Granted, our house is noisy and it often sounds like someone is jumping on the roof when the temperature outside changes drastically... so I didn't think much of it. But later, when Abby and I were reading in her room, one of her windows which had a slight crack in it started to break even further because of the wind. I grabbed her and put her to bed in the playroom when we lost power. She was asleep in about 2 minutes, totally fine with the howling wind just outside the window, the lack of usual white noise and her parents acting a bit freaked out.

Most people in Pasadena were prepared for this, but since I live in a hole and never, ever get to watch the news (it's way too graphic for the two year old eyes!), always listen to kid songs in the car so I can have some peace and quiet and only have time to check my email when online, I had no idea what was coming. The next 12 hours consisted of some Auntie Em type stuff, up to 100 miles an hour at our house. At one point, we were afraid that our large sliding doors might shatter they were shuddering against the wind so often. The good news? Grant and I got some quality time together, loudly talking over the crazy wind outside. It was funny how after awhile, we got used to the noise. Still freaky, but we got used to it.

My mom arrived the next day - we still can't believe her plane could land -- and we spent that day and the next night without power, our temperatures dropping more each hour. That night Grant was up stoking the fire every hour and trying to keep the place above 58 degrees. At about 4am, our power came on, while the folks just across the canyon from us had their power out FOR FIVE DAYS. Five. Days. For every single one of those 5 days, we were so very thankful that we had power, warmth and the smarts to make Christmas cookies. Many of our neighbors lost trees, had damage to their homes and when we drive through Pasadena, a week later, we still see hundred year old oak trees toppled from the roots. We've still got a lot to clean up around here... but relatively speaking, we're doing pretty good! Thank you for your calls and emails to see if we were okay!

The day before we lost power was a lovely day. Abby was blowing bubbles...

Rubbing the bubbles all over her hands...

Got caught in the act of putting the wand in her mouth ("Mom! My lips hurt!")...

and ironically, like Dorothy, sporting her sparkly slippers. Hopefully she was thinking "there's no place like home."

And the look I love....that glassy eyed stare that comes after lunch when she's ready for a rest.

495. a fireplace that works and actually puts out heat

496. a stack of wood that had been delivered a week before

497. the perfect timing of grandma's visit