Holiday Fun

I decided that a good way to lower the intake of holiday treats would be to limit the amount I made and do them early. So right after Thanksgiving I began but I was met with a lot of problems. I first made fudge but I did it wrong and ended up with fudge frosting so I tried adding flour and turning them into cookies which also didn't work well.  I then made sugar cookie swirls (to take to the RS Party) but didn't have enough powdered sugar and ended up having to take them without frosting- blah. So I again tried fudge and some famous Stones Family Caramels.  The fudge was a little grainy but it was good enough to eat and I was pretty proud of the caramels.

Later in the month we again attempted sugar cookies to take caroling with us.  I was distracted by James and Elizabeth decided to turn the blender on super speed right after adding the flour and our kitchen quickly became covered in flour.  It was funny and all over Elizabeth but tough to get it all cleaned up. The cookies were good but I used old butter for the frosting and it was gross (tasted like our fridge). So we had to get rid of some of them and make new frosting for the rest. So... I didn't make as many goodies as usual and the ones that I did attempt didn't really work well. I guess I should just stick to making a lot of them!

 

 

On Friday December 4, we met up with some friends (the Hoffmans and the Stephens) in Old Town Louisville to watch the Parade of Lights. It was so much fun to be all bundled and see all of the lights.  It is a great way to start the holiday season.

 

 

 

 

 

We wanted to decorate our tree together but with all of the activities going up at the beginning of the month we got the tree up but didn't get it decorated for a while.  It was fun to get everything out and decorated in the house. Elizabeth loved to help and to look through it all.

 

We watched the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional at the Newson's house while decorating their tree. It was fun seeing the ornament distribution with a toddler decorating.

I had a lot of fun doing things at the beginning of the month. I was invited to sing in a quartet for the Relief Society Christmas Party and I was so nervous.  I discovered that I love to sing in big groups (choirs) but am a little scared of singing in smaller groups.  Rachel helped me practice and the performance was ok.  The next week we had our Annual Book Club Exchange at Red Robin. We all get together and talk, eat and have a white elephant style book exchange.


While we were in California it snowed almost a foot and so when we got home we got to play in it! It was quite a shock to playing on the beach the day before but it was fun and beautiful to tromp through the snow.  James was not a fan.

 

 

This year the Ward Christmas Party (Dec 19) was appetizers and desserts with a small program and it was all very nice.  But the best part was the pre-party where the Primary and YW had made wonderful activities for the kids; Elf Workshop with crafts, story time with Mrs Clause and a special visit with Santa Clause.  Ben mysteriously disappeared when Santa was there and arrived after he left- so he missed him! (They have more pictures of Santa.  We even got a family picture but... Ben wasn't there!)

 

 

At the beginning of the holidays I was telling Elizabeth everything that we were going to do and mentioned a Ginger Bread house. Then December went fast and things got busy, so I figured we would just pass on that this year, that is until Elizabeth reminded me that we had to make one before Christmas.  So, we decided to make a ginger bread house.  We cut the house out of cardboard (thanks Ben) and taped it together.  Then I made frosting and Elizabeth started decorating; the frosting was way to soft and so as I thickened it, Elizabeth just ate the candy.  One side of the roof has a bite out of each piece of candy (but once they were on she didn't touch them because of the glue on them).  It looks a little haphazard and it's okay. It was made with love by a toddler and it helped to fulfill her holiday preparations

 

 

 

 

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First Trip to Disneyland

Our first full day in CA we went to Disney Land with Taylor and Page.  It was Elizabeth's first time and she was in total shock; she was in a little bit of a grumpy mood (time change?) and didn't have much of a reaction, other than a shocked stare.  It was decorated for Christmas, so the holly, trees and merriment made it even more magical.

We had an adventure before even reaching the park, when James had a big blow out in the parking garage.  Luckily I had some extra clothes with me and we were able to get him cleaned up.  He then went slept content in the baby carrier for most of the day- yay!

 

 

Once in the park, we started by going to the Disney Princess area.  There we saw Merida and Rupunzel (but didn't wait in line to talk to them) and we went into the Princess Castle and got to meet and talk to Mulan, Belle and Cinderella.  Elizabeth was in shock and told them all that it was her first time (she had a pin).  When Belle told her that Cinderella was around the corner she just turned and left; we had to bring her back for some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 Upon leaving the castle we saw that the Frozen show was about to start but we didn't have tickets, so we asked and got front row (I guess someone hadn't come?).  This was a hilarious show with two singing jesters acting out what happened in Frozen, the movie, with the help of Anna and Elsa.  It was fun to watch and Elizabeth's shocked face was worth it. (You could even see her quietly singing along with all the songs).

 

After lunch we decided to try some rides.  The girls first wanted to go on the Dumbo ride and fly in the elephants.  Taylor took them through the line, so that I could feed James and take pictures.  Once the ride started Elizabeth wouldn't let her lower it, so I didn't get very good pictures of the girls. We then went on the carousel and had fun riding the horses.

 

 

 

So much going on around them and they were interested in the pennies at the bottom of this pond.

 

 

 

 

 

Outside the carousel was Arthur's sword in the stone and the girls tried to pull it out.  I had previous told Elizabeth all about it and she recently watched the movie and she was determined to pull it out.  Even after the pictures, she kept trying and finally asked me to do it.  I think she really expected it to come out and finally told me that Dad just had to come and do it.  We then went on a boat ride that took us around to see miniature statues of all of the castles and scenes from the Disney movies.

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor then stood with James and I took the girls on the tea cups.  While in the line we talked about and decided which tea cup we wanted to be in but the people in front of us took it, which began a huge tantrum from Elizabeth.  She screamed and thrashed as we got on and waited for the ride to begin and the moment in started her screams of anger turned into screams of joy and excitement.  It was so hilarious to see and made Page and me laugh.  We all loved the ride and none of us got sick from the excessive spinning.

We saw a Mary Poppins performance on the street; with dancing and singing with a band and Bert. At one point they invited kids from the audience to join them in some dancing and Elizabeth went up.  She walked up to Mary Poppins, grabbed her hand and would not let go through the entire dance.  It was cute to watch her loving look and infatuation with Mary Poppins.

 

Elizabeth was really sad and crying so Taylor held her as she fell asleep.

 

It was then an hour and a half until the parade and Taylor said we should find a spot to sit.  I thought she was crazy but as we started walking up the route we found that it was already full.  We finally found a spot, standing room only (ugh our feet) and hunkered down to wait.  This was a perfect time for our grumpy girls to take naps; the only problem with napping was the waking up for the parade part. As the parade started we jostled them awake which resulted in a very grumpy Elizabeth, so grumpy that after watching one float she pouted and turned to bury her face in the back of the stroller.  She soon started watching again as the floats came.  It was the Christmas parade and it was amazing with a all different floats and it ended with Santa!  The coolest float was the princess float with all of the princesses and their princes dancing and singing.

Turned away in anger at having been woken up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We decided to leave after the parade due to extremely tired and grumpy kids.  As we started to leave they calmed down and we almost stayed longer but were glad that we left because of the 'getting to the car' melt downs.  Basically, we were all so exhausted but had so much fun!  It was an amazing day and I was so glad that I had Taylor there as our tour guide.

We ended the night with McDonalds and In-N-Out for dinner and then drove to Hemet to pick Michael up on our way back to Andrea's house.