Christmas at Disneyland

Just when you think Disneyland can’t get any better – you go during Christmas time.  They somehow make it even more magical.

My mom joined us on this trip so it was Sam, Grandma, Me & the boys.  It was great!   It was a little more low-key – Grandma doesn’t need as-much-Disneyland-as-possible jammed in to each day so we took some time for shows, etc. during the day.  It was great to have her along.

We spent all of Day One at Disneyland.  One of the highlights was that Nate finally got picked to do the Jedi Training!  He’s been wanting to do this for such a long time.  It’s a fabulous show!  He fought Darth Vader and was so proud he didn’t’ join the dark side. 

We took Ryan to Toon Town for the first time and he loved it.  He especially loved the Toon Town Roller Coaster – he had his hands up the entire time.  He’s going to be our rollercoaster dare devil, I think!

We watched the Christmas Disneyland Parade & it was getting a little chilly and Ryan was exhausted so there was talk of leaving but I was not missing out on the Christmas fireworks and snow this time!  We walked around the park a little and a small miracle occurred – Ryan fell asleep in the stroller!  If you know Ryan at all – you know this has never happened before!  He fell asleep about 5 minutes before it all started so we all got to enjoy the best firework show I’ve probably ever seen with the snow.  Good work, Disneyland.  It was quite amazing.

We headed to our hotel and got all settled & I crossed my fingers for a miracle that night since Ryan is NOT a good sleeper when we travel.  Our last hotel experience was not ideal but this time I was without Wes.  All was going quite well until the hotel fire alarm went off at 2:30am.  It of course woke us all up and we marched down from the 7th floor to the cold outside.  False alarm.  We all fell back asleep and it went off AGAIN.  {turns out it was a teenager that pulled it.  lovely.}.  This time my mom and I stayed in the room with the boys while Sam went to check it out.  She found the hotel manager in the lobby at 3am and basically said in a not so happy way – “if this happens again, I am going to freak out on you.”  It didn’t happen again.  Kids went back to sleep and all was well.  I even negotiated a free night for our next visit which turned out to be a pretty good deal.

We started Day 2 at California Adventure.  Grandma had never been there so we had to show her our favorites.  She didn’t quite understand why we were anxious to get to the park early and get in line until we stood in a rather long line for Toy Story that we could have avoided with an earlier arrival.  I think she slowly began to understand our Disneyland tactics!  My mom absolutely loved Soarin’ over California – her favorite, for sure.

Day 2 is rough with Ryan.  He’s officially exhausted from Day 1 {and the hotel fire alarm} so I get to hold him most of the day.  He won’t let anyone else!  He still has a great time but it’s exhausting.  He gets really particular and quirky when he’s really tired.  He wanted me to hold him but Grandma to tickle his back.  Every once in a while he’d let Sam hold his weight if he could rest his head on me.  It was nuts but we were all willing to do any of those things to keep him happy!

Ryan tried his first Disneyland corn dog and he was a fan.

A few new characters we met:

We rode this ride for the first {and probably last} time.  I usually have very few complaints after a day at Disneyland but the workers of this ride were absolutely the slowest moving people around. 

Both of my kids are obsessed with any live entertainment at Disneyland.  They will stop and watch every single show from start to finish.  We managed to watch the Phineas and Ferb show a number of times this trip!  The holiday version was great.

The peppermint ice cream special was absolutely delicious.

Even though we’ve gone quite a few times this year – I am always ready for more. What a great trip!