Christmas

Christmas just gets better every year! And this year although it seemed like I was so ready for it to come, then it all of a sudden came and went so fast. But with Taylor I really did enjoy it so much. It was even better than last year and I am sure next year will be even better!

This year she had an obsession with Santa. Or as she liked to call him, "anta". She still didn't get the whole idea that he brought her gifts or anything like that, but pointed him out everywhere that we went, she even associated him with things. Frighteningly enough, when we would sometime have our little discussions about Jesus, she would sometimes call him Anta, even though she knew full well He was Jesus. Pure obsession! Except that is, when it came to sitting on his lap, then it was a full blown meltdown like when Santa came to Grandma TT and Papa's house...


For Christmas Eve, my Aunt Paula (my mom's sister), my cousin Matt, his wife Jen and their kids Emery and Isaac come over for our Christmas Eve feast. I look forward to this every year! Most importantly because my mom and sister are actually here to celebrate a holiday with me which is the very best and also because I actually get to play hostess for a night which although I need a lot of work at, is a lot of fun! Unfortunately my sister didn't come out this year which was sad for me and for my mom. It wasn't the same without her.

Our Christmas Eve feast for the most part, however, is virtually the same from year to year. It has been since from before I can remember when I would spend the holiday coming out here to visit my mom's family with my Grandparents who have now passed on and all of my aunts and uncles. We start with a salad, this year we did a Caesar with my mom's yummy homemade dressing (although the salad changes from year to year), Prime Rib cooked medium rare, except for Jen, (although hers is getting a little more rare each year, probably because we give her so much crap), Twice Baked Potatoes, Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce and then the dessert varies from year to year. This year was my friend Amy's yummy chocolate cake. Jen did all of the appetizers and brought the rolls which were excellent. And after a day of cooking with my mom, I am one happy and fulfilled girl! It's one of my very favorite holiday traditions! Even Dustin has grown to love it as well.

After dinner, Paula read a book to the kids and Dustin read the birth of the Savior from the bible. Then it was time for presents. Jen supplies the pj's for the kids. Yes, Taylor has wet hair because she had to take a bath after smearing butter in her hair during dinner... that girl sometimes!

Christmas morning Dustin was so excited he barely waited for my mom to get upstairs. I virtually had to yell at him to stop in his tracks! It's not like Taylor knew what was going on outside of her room and in the mornings she can play in her room for hours! We had one of Santa's present set out on the coffee table and a couple more wrapped on the sofa with her stocking. The rest of the presents were under the tree. I must say that I have not done very well thus far with presents for Taylor. You would think since I spend all day with her I would know what she wants, but Santa on the other hand this year struck GOLD! Once she saw her Disney Princess Castle, she didn't look at anything else... litterally!

We had to open the rest of her presents and show them to her. Since then, she has loved all of her presents and we realized that we did pretty good this year. The grandparents did pretty darn good too! Later that day we went to Grandma TT and Papa's house. They got the kids a playhouse for their house. Taylor played in the playhouse the whole time we were there! She didn't care about opening any other presents at their house either.

When we came home, she went back to playing with the castle. PJ's went on and she was all about her castle and the Dora microphone. Although I think Daddy had just about as much fun singing and playing with the microphone that night as she did with the two of them going back and forth... it was priceless! It went something like "I did it" "Tay Tay did it" "Daddy did it" singing to the tune of Dora. Let alone the millions of other things they were singing.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I didn't get any pics of our New Year's festivities, unfortunately. Those were spent at Dustin's parent's house eating lots of food and playing on the Wii doing some Dance game and singing Karaoke, laughing my butt off. Nothing like making a fool of yourself in front of family. But the kids LOVED it! Taylor was shaking her little rump like nothing else and loving every second of it. 2010 was such a great year, I can't even imagine 2011 being any better!

Disneyland

Well I'm officially a month behind. Usually that doesn't matter too much, but Tay is growing up so fast and we really did have a jam-packed month with my dad in town, Disneyland, Christmas, New Years, and now Taylor in a big girl bed. I am a horrible blogger and journal writer so we'll see how my memory serves me. Since I finally am getting back to a normal schedule this week, I'm going to try and catch up the blog. I guess we'll wait and see how I do...

Disneyland was magical. What else can I say? Taylor is only two, but it was an amazing experience seeing it through her eyes. The last few times I had been were with my mom and sister a couple years ago and then with swim team trips in high school so seeing everything through the eyes of a 2 year old was special beyond words. Plus, we flew my mom down for a Birthday/Christmas present. She and Dustin share a birthday so they both spent their birthday at Disneyland which was fun too!


Taylor of course loves the princesses! We thought she was going to be able to take a pic with Ariel, but of course they changed up princesses by the time we got to the front of the line and Ariel had left, but surprisingly, she went right up to Aurora and sat up on her lap which was an absolute miracle! I was shocked! When we got to Belle who is her 2nd favorite, she got scared and I had to stand with her. That girl is so unpredictable!!!

But later in the day when we ran into Snow White, her obsession was no longer with the princesses, but with "da vitch" as she would call her. She couldn't keep her eyes off her and kept wanting to look at my mom's phone so she could see the picture of the witch. After Disneyland, when people would ask her about Disneyland and if she saw the princesses, she would just say "and da vitch". We also went on the Nemo submarine ride which she LOVED! But again, when I would prompt her to talk about Disneyland and ask her to tell people if she saw Nemo, she would say "and the sharks". Apparently, my daughter has a dark side to her...

She was excited about seeing "da Mow" aka Mickey Mouse, however when it was time to take a picture with him (yes that is my pooch - bad shirt choice, however it has now substantially grown in size) all she wanted to do was stare at Mickey Mouse and touch his ears which made taking the pic with him extremely difficult; oh well! It's all about her enjoyment, right? And she loved looking at him!

I think Taylor really enjoyed being able to be held and just be around her dad for like 3 days straight, so when it came to going on the rides, she really only wanted to go with her daddy. Grandma and I were chopped liver. But, it was okay, we still got to have some special moments with her.

I swear Taylor got more scared on the Fantasyland rides than Pirates, Haunted Mansion or any of the others. We knew when she was scared because she'd get off the ride and say "it's okay, it's okay" or "I'm okay, I'm okay". But she loved the Haunted Mansion. I guess it's not as scary decked out as the Nightmare Before Christmas and it was so cool. Also, Taylor is obsessed with pumpkins so she really loved it!

She also loved the It's a Bug's Life movie at California Adventure. Probably good she wouldn't wear the 3D glasses but she loved seeing all of the bugs and all of the extra 3D hoopla that went along with it.

OBSESSED I tell ya! She couldn't stop touching the witch, nor talking about it!

Some other highlights:

• Taylor also loved It's a Small World which is amazing at Christmastime. She called all of the dolls in the ride babies. And when we got to the Hawaii section and there were the "babies" hula dancing she said "Shake It" (one of her favorite Backyardigans songs) and started dancing like the hula dancers. It was so precious.
• A few weeks after Disneyland we were singing Jingle Bells and she kept saying "the babies". I couldn't understand what she was talking about. Then Dustin remembered that they were playing that song during the ride. What a good memory she has!
• She went nuts at the World of Color show at California Adventure when she saw Ariel projected on the water and then the fish. It's not hard to tell what her favorites are. She certainly makes it known.
• When we walked by the tea cup ride she said "Look" and then told us that they were taking baths. Maybe that was more funny for me or a 'you had to be there' moment.
• At the hotel in the mornings she would run around and the last morning before we left she was running around with these two sisters (one slightly older and one a little younger than her) that would just follow her around and do what she was doing, especially the younger one. It got me so excited to think she was having a little sister.
• FAVORITE MEMORY - She LOVED the parade. The parade was awesome and for 30 minutes or however long it was, she barely moved a muscle and just watched it. Occasionally she would say look, but mainly just stared in awe. At one point, Chip and Dale (the squirrels) came out driving a car, the car broke down and they got out of the car. During this parade there is no interaction with the audience except for waving. Taylor was standing in between us in awe. Chip or Dale (one of them) came over to Taylor, right up to her in the middle of the parade, stopped, touched her face went back to his car, grabbed one of his big acorns brought it back over to her. She just stared at him and touched the acorn and he just touched her face and stood there for at least a minute or two. It was one of the sweetest things in the world. Straight out of a Disneyland commercial. I was so frozen I couldn't even grab the camera in my lap, I think I had tears welling up in my eyes. It was one of the cutest things in the world that my description can't even begin to do the moment justice. It was like the parade went silent and all eyes were on Taylor and the squirrel, whichever one it was. I don't think I'll ever forget that Disneyland moment.

All in all; amazing trip. I'm sure Taylor will forget most of it. But for now, coming from a girl whose answer is "no" to everything, when you ask her if she had fun at Disneyland, her answer is "yes". I also think it goes down as one of Dustin and my mom's best birthdays' ever. Mission accomplished!