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