Special Christmas Gift

All I wanted for Christmas was a trip to Disneyland with my kids and my wonderful husband came through.  This note was on the tree on Christmas morning.  The hotel we stayed at last time was booked but we ended up staying in a hotel even closer to the entrance.  It was pretty perfect.  

 Here are the kids on Wednesday afternoon. They were skipping school to do this trip so they had to do homework in the airport and on the plane but it was definitely worth it.

 Serafina always likes to stay on theme so she wore little airplane earrings.

 We arrived at Long Beach airport after just an hour in the air.  It's a pretty little airport.

 My cousin Dillon picked us up and we had dinner with my Aunt Sheila before heading to the hotel.  Even though it was getting late, we had to head to Downtown Disney to soak up a little of the Disney energy and do some shopping.

Happy New Years

We celebrated New Years Eve the same way we always do, with our friends The Gradwohls.  This year it was just our crew and theirs, but we had a great time any way.  

Here's Sunny and Serafina.  

 Leo, Sidney, Serafina and Sunny.

 Serafina stayed the night (and stayed up way too late).  She was treated to pancakes in the morning.

First Tahoe trip

We headed up to Tahoe the evening of the 26th for a few days of skiing.  It didn't really snow while we were there but it was pretty cold.  Here's my crew headed off to ski after I dropped them off in the parking lot.  I asked Tom to take pictures out on the mountain but that didn't happen, so this is all I've got.  

 Sunday night was our housemate Carlo's 13th birthday.  Last year we celebrated with disco tubing.  This year we went out to dinner.  Leo and I headed into the village before everyone else so we could put our name on the waitlist.  We killed some time wandering around the village.  Here's a cool ice sculpture that was on display.  That's my dad's hat he's wearing.

 And the big tree.

 Here's the birthday boy on the right with his brother Nico and dad Stephan.

The 49ers game was on at the restaurant so the kids got stuck waiting for the adults to watch the end of the game.  They didn't sit around bored too much.  They mostly played outside even though it was really cold.  

 Back at the house everyone celebrated with dessert.

Christmas Eve and Christmas 2019

We went to see the new Star Wars movie on Christmas Eve.  It was $6 Tuesday at the nice theater at the mall so the only showtime we could get seats for was 4:15.  I was worried that would interfere with dinner too much but it worked out just fine.  It was a really fun way to break up a day that can be a bit stressful because of anticipation and preparations.  The movie was only so-so but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.  

 Nana joined us, of course.

 After dinner we still had time to make our traditional butter cookies for Santa.

 I didn't take a single picture on Christmas day except of this certificate Tom gave to me and the kids.  We are so excited to go back to Disneyland and, of course, combine it with visiting family.

 Our Christmas day was full of food and relaxing (I even got to take a nap!).

Here are two bonus pictures of some Christmas displays I very much enjoyed.  I love the big Minion keeping watch over the Nativity scene.

 This magical mushroom is just a few doors down from my mom's apartment.

Santa at DAU

We visited Santa at Serafina's dance studio today.  That's where we went last year too.  It's not as crazy as the mall and it's free! 

Serafina decided not to fully crush Santa this year and the picture still turned out super cute.  

I have all my past Santa photos on display currently.  Well the ones that include Serafina.   It's pretty fun to look back.  

Serafina's class holiday potluck

 Leo and I attended Serafina's class party.  There were games and a big potluck.  Here's Serafina eating the marshmallows from the "Build a Snowman" game.

 Serafina and Nora.

Leo built a tank with his marshmallows.  

 They also played "Lefty the Elf" which they also played two years ago when Leo was in that class.

Here's Serafina with a crew of class friend eating some yummy potluck food.

 We had our friends the Ciccottos over last night for a pre-holiday dinner since they are headed out of town on Sunday.  I didn't take any pictures of the people, but I took this picture of the tomato soup cake I made.  It's a yummy spice cake with a cream cheese frosting.  You don't taste any tomato; it just adds a nice moisture to the cake.

The Nutcracker 2019

Tonight was the final of four shows of the school's production of "The Nutcracker".  Serafina wanted to be an Arabian dancer since the first time she saw The Nutcracker and this year her dream came true.  

Not only did she love performing the dance and the gymnastics, she bonded with the other girls and had fun with her group.  

Here are most of the kids waiting their turn to perform.  

Arabian dancers lined up to go to the cafeteria to perform.  

Here's a video from dress rehearsal.   

 

Lined up for the bow during the finale.  

Finale song. 

After three after-school rehearsals last week and four performances in two days, both Serafina and I are exhausted.  Thank god we have a long time before we have to think about the Nutcracker again.