Our Busy Month

December is always busy for us. We didn't plan it out well. Work is always busy for both Deb and I. It is the end of the quarter and end of year for me, and with Deb working retail, this is her busiest month. It seems to always start with Thanksgiving and before we know it, the new year is her. December 2nd is our anniversary, Anistyn's birthday is on the 12th, and then throw in all the christmas shopping, all the family parties, the lights, the tree, and before you know it, it's all said and done.
Ansityn has had a busy month so far. Early this month, she was invited to go with Pa to ride on The Polar Express. It is the Heber Creeper that they create a villiage made out of lights up by Deer Creek, they read the Polar Express story, give out cookies, hot chocolate, a christmas bell, and the jolly old make makes an appearance along with the Mrs. Its a pretty big deal as I have looked into it in years past and people come from out of state to visit family and ride the train. For a couple of weeks before she was telling everyone that Pa was taking her to the North Pole. She always likes visiting with Pa.

With Deb working retail her November and December are pretty much blacked out for any vacation time. So for our anneversary we didn't plan anything other than dinner. We went up to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and ate dinner at The Roof. It was nice to spend time with just she and I. Our table was right next to the window so we had an amazing view of temple square with all the christmas lights on. Deb got me a fun little Flip video camera to use for blogging. It holds an hour of video, and is completly plug and play via usb with your computer.

Deb was scheduled to work a couple of Saturday's this month so she actually had Monday the 15th, off of work. It was Rae's birthday on Friday so we make a trip out of it and headed to Disneyland. I got some tickets off of e-bay which saved us about $100. Children under 3 get in free so we planned on telling them that her birthday wasn't until the 18th. Turns out that if you bring your child in a stroller, they don't even ask questions. If you have never been to Disneyland at christmas time, it is something that I think eveyone should experince at least once. That being said, I don't know that I will ever purposefully plan another christmas trip there. They have everything decorated for with lights, trees, wreaths, and all things christmas. Even raindeer and christmas crafts in frontier land. They also turn the castle into an ice castle with blue and white lights, and fake snow on the roof tops. It is quite a site to see. The prade is different, and so are the fireworks. They even blow out fake snow when the fireworks are over. I mean literally, they blow out soapy, suddsy bubbles that actually look like snow from a distance. There are two problems with this time of year. 1. Is that it is fairly cold. And 2. there are a ton of people there.

We left on Friday night after work and spent the night with Bryan and Lani ( sorry if I spelled your name wrong Lani). We woke up at 4:30 am and drove the rest of the way in. With the long drive, and traffic on the 91 a standstill, we didn't get to the park unitl 11:00. It was overcast and a bit chilly, and there were people everywhere. What was nice is that we were able to just take our time and do whatever Rae wanted. With Deb being pregnant, we were limited as to what we could and couldn't ride. We just gave Rae some suggestions and let her chose where she wanted to go. We spent time over in toon town and got to see Mickey, Minny, and Goofy. Ansityn was brave enough to ride the little rollercoaster as well. We spent the rest of the day in Fantasy land, and she loved riding the rockets.

Day two was a lot better. It was clear and cooler and there weren't as many people. One of Anistyn's favorite things at Disneyland is meeting all the princesses and getting dressed up like one. She has been Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. This time she wanted to be Snow White. It kinda suprised us as all along she wanted to be Belle. We were one of the first in line to meet the princesses again. We went through the line and met, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. Once we were done we went over and bought her a dress, some shoes, and a bow. Along with all that, they do their hair, with flowers and ribbons, and also paint thier faces up (all for a few extra dollars, of course). It is really cute to watch her because she just sits there like an angel and lets them do her hair and put on the makeup, and she doesn't flinch. Unlike at home.

Once she was all dekced out, we were going to go and ride some more rides, but I noticed that they were changing princesses. The line wasn't too long so we jumped back in. Now normally when you go see the princesses, they say hi and to take a few pictures and you move onto the next one. In all you are out about 5 minutes. This time was different. You see earlier in the morning, before we went to the park, I asked Rae if we were going back, and she said "where". I told her we were going "back to the future" as a joke. she got mad because she wanted to go back to the park. For some reason, that stuck with her. When we got back up to meet the princesses it was Belle first. She told Anistyn that she looked beautiful and asked where she was from. Ansityn simply replied "From the Future". Well Belle seemed to get a kick out of that. She asked her if everyone wears Snow White dresses in the future, and Rae said "yes"
"Even Daddy?" asked Belle
"No, he just wears t-shirts"
"what do we eat in the future"
"Beans"Ansityn replied.
"Do we still ride horses and carriages in the future"
"yes"
This went on for a bit and then they took some pictures and then Belle walked Anistyn over to Ariel. She told her that she was from the future and then they all talked for a bit.
Arial asked "how did you get here from the future"
"I flew" said Rae
"Can you fly now?"
"No because I have my boots on right now"
Apparently you have to have the right shoes for flight.
This whole sequence went on for a bit and Ariel skipped Rae over to meet Jasmine. The conversation continued for enough time that it was time to rotate princesses again and Cinderella came back and they talked for a bit longer. By the time we walked out of there, it was fifteen minutes later. I am sure the people in line behind us were mad at how long we were taking. I think Anistyn made their day just as much as they made hers.

We spent the rest of the day riding rides. We headed over to California Adventure and rode all the kids rides, and I mean all of them. We also saw the parade with Jessy, Woody, Buzz, Flick, princess Atta, Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, The Incredibles and all her other favorites. We then went back to Disneyland and saw the christmas parade, rode a few more rides. I fell alseep in the Tiki room, but Rae loved it. We then watched the fireworks and went back to the hotel for the night. We did everything that she wanted to do, all in one day, which was good because we woke up to rain.

I went to walmart early in the morning to get Rae a poncho, and some umbrellas. It was funny because I ran into two other guys doing the same thing. The day before, we had bought two ponchos at disneyland and they told us that they only had adults, which is why we were short one for Anistyn. So we got all bundled up and went back to the park. Well it turns out that they ponchos that tey gave us were acutally childrens and really didn't cover Deb and I that well. It didn't matter because within a half hour, we were all soaked. We rode a few of the rides and got even more wet. We did some shopping and bought decorations for our christmas tree, and we headed home. By the time we left we had done everything that we wanted. it was about 1:30 and the rain had let up quite a bit. This allowed them to re-open the part of I-15 out of LA that was closed due to snow. I was glad we left when we did, earlier than planned, because it took us a long time to get home. We had snow from Hisperia to just outside fo Vegas. Then again from just outside St. George all the way home. There were times that traffic was going 25 and you were driving on packed snow. Made for a long drive home.
This is my first attempt at posting videos, but here is the footage from the princesses. If you listen closely you can hear the conversation. Also a short clip of Rae dancing outside the Tiki Room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMcVjyHJ7Ks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMUHTYrPndM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvlIP9g32cw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBuARjSsHyo


Merry Christmas everyone!