the long and winding road...

Christmas time at DL
is so beautiful. Main Street, the castle, Its a Small World (IASW) and the Haunted Mansion are incredible at this time of year. I almost feel sorry for people whose first visit to DL is during the holiday season. I think they are probably forever ruined for future trips.

Several months ago while I was looking at something online, G caught sight of a disney princess Christmas dress that she absolutely fell in love with. I did too actually. I'd ordered from the seller before and had always been pleased with the results. The dress did not disappoint. The appliques are fantastic and feature the princesses in holiday wear --even the little mermaid :-) --and it has lots of twirl!

G really wanted to visit the princesses. Even on a slow friday that can mean a wait so Bobby took her to Dumbo while I waited for the princesses to arrive. It worked out perfectly with Bobby and G meeting me when I was just at the front of the line.


Ariel has always been one of G's favorites. Her absolute favorite is Rapunzel but she has her own meet and greet with its own very, very long line.

After the princesses G spent some time in Mickey and Minnie's houses.
Next stop was IASW which is by far my favorite Chrismas time attraction. Its just so pretty. At almost the last second right at the end of the ride I whipped around and asked the guy behind us to snap our pic. I think he did a pretty good job for being put on the spot like that!!

After that we hit Haunted Mansion (G's favorite) and the newly reopened Pirates. Then we popped over Calif Adventure because we'd make a reservation to go to the princess lunch. G and I have been several times but Bobby never had. I think the food and atmosphere is really good. We were early so G was able to ride on the jumping jellyfish ride. This is something she's wanted to do on previous trips but only recently made the 40" height requirement. It was a hit!

We then took a required ride on Little Mermaid and had just enough time to visit with Duffy in his Christmas attire before heading into lunch.

Not only did G love her dress but it was also a huge hit at DL. In fact the photographer's assistant at the princess lunch --who has probably seen just about every princess themed dress known to man --could not stop talking about it. G enjoyed showing each princess their appliqued counterpart on her skirt. Lots of fun!

After lunch we kicked around CA a bit. Santa was there with hardly a line so we thought we'd have a quick visit.

I like the Mickey wreath made of christmas ornaments in the background. Cute detail!

G rode the carousel which she really loves but I think the real attraction to going over there is so she can splash in the fountain!

Because we have the passes, we've been to DL about 25 times this year but never at night. Normally we arrive at opening and leave around 2-3pm to beat the traffic home. What this means is that G has never seen the fireworks. In fact, G has never seen any fireworks. I know, I'm a horrible mom. But in my defense she gets up so early and she is in bed like clockwork absolutely no later than 8:30. It just never seemed worth it. But G's been asking and asking to stay for the fireworks. We finally made a deal with her. We would stay if she promised to take a rest midday and, most importantly, NO grouchiness. She agreed. So after the carousel she laid down in the stroller and went to sleep. Then we thought we'd go see the Aladdin show. This required taking sleeping G out of the stroller. No worries, daddy naps work too!

About 6pm we headed back to DL. The lines just to enter were awful. They weren't even lines really so much as just a mob of people pushing their way forward and thinking "why the heck is this taking so long?" After 20 mins we were finally in and I was a bit bugged but as luck would have it we walked onto Main Street at a great time! We had made it about halfway between the entrance and the castle when they started the tree and castle lighting. It was a first for me and, although only a few minutes, really pretty. At the end they make it snow! G was up on Bobby's shoulders and loved the falling snow.

It was early still and G said she wanted to ride IASW again but talk about crowded! Just walking anywhere took forever. By the time we made it back near IASW the crowds were crazy, 40 min line! I was so not going to stand in line for 40 mins to go on a ride we usually walk on so we gave up and thought we'd go scope out a spot for the fireworks. It was still about 1-1/2 hrs away but with the crowds it was nearly impossible to maneuver around. There were already hundreds and hundreds of people waiting for the fireworks so we found a bit of curb and parked to wait it out until 8:45. Wouldn't you know, G feel asleep about 30 mins before the show was to start! After devoting nearly 3 hrs of our time to the singular purpose of her seeing fireworks there was no way I was going to let her miss it. With a bit of effort we were able to rouse her from sleep just in time. I have to say, it was all worth it. G loved the fireworks!!! I did too. They're actually quite well done and a bit more than the usual 4th of July things I've seen in the past.

Needless to say after 13 hrs at DL we were all pretty exhausted and it was time to go home. What a great day!!