Christmas 2012
I know this is super late. We went on vacation and we've been super sick. Yuck! I have so many things to post about though... I'm working on trying to catch up.

Ok, Christmas... it ended up being a very quiet day. Just Bobby, Casey, Georgie, my mom and me; Brett spent the day with his girlfriend. Even though there weren't tons of gifts under the tree--we try hard not to go overboard on the gift thing-- Georgie was thrilled! She was especially excited about her Pottery Barn doll and her globe. My mom surprised me with a beautiful custom blanket with images of Georgie on it... it's so beautiful, I almost cried :-)

G with her much beloved "Spring" doll

"I'm queen of the Christmas tree!!!"

I think G was most excited about giving Bobby and I the gift she made for us at school... adorable!!

This is a nice pic of G and my mom

Ahhhhh!!!

Isn't it beautiful???

Preschool Holiday Party and Sing
The holiday sing at G's school is one of the cutest things they do. All the kids in their holiday wear, up on the stage, singing their little hearts out. Adorable!!! Yes, I get there super early and grab a dead center front row spot... I'm totally THAT mom :-) I can't help it. They're all so cute and G is really into it. Just like last year, after each song she'd look directly at Bobby and me with this HUGE smile plastered to her face. Sweet girl.

The other great thing is that after a quick holiday-themed snack and about a dozen mixed holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, etc) songs, vacation would officially begin. Yippee!!!

I just love Gs teacher this year. Mrs Martino has been awesome!

How cute is that enormous bow on Gs head?? I gave her a choice of that one or something much more reasonably sized and she chose the huge one without a second's hesitation.

There are about 50 or so kids in Gs school every single one of whom was wearing red, green, and black/grey except G. No worries! She was very easy to spot in her pink Cindy Lou Who set.

G was thrilled that we won one of the raffle baskets. I was hoping for the "Spa" basket but G was happy we ended up with "movie night" instead. Yes, that entire basket was filled with candy, popcorn and DVDs of kids movies.

This was our last preschool holiday program. Next year G will be going to kindergarten which means an entirely different experience. I have mixed emotions. Sigh, can't she just stay little forever??

Georgie loves the tree!
Its been up since a few days after Thanksgiving but I finally got around to snapping a couple pix of the "finished" product... in quotes because it seems that G brings home a new ornament from preschool or Chinese school or something every couple days :-)

I always love when the tree goes up. Its so pretty! By the time Christmas comes around I'm usually tired of it. If I was more motivated it would come down Christmas night but it usually sticks around a bit longer :-)
 
Oh my gosh I just love this cute little face!

The holiday season is upon us
for real. Every year we say we're going to get the tree and outside lights up on Thanksgiving weekend. It never happens. Best laid plans and all that... it doesn't usually happen until a week or two before Christmas day. But, this year, we did it! Only two days after Thanksgiving and the tree is up, the house is pretty much decorated and we were off to our first Christmas activity at the Candlelight Pavilion.

We went last year and really enjoyed the show. Sadly, although we had a good time overall, it was not nearly as good as before. The food was only so-so, the service was AWFUL, and the show was ok. I was so surprised because I've been many, many times and never had bad service or food. Even with all these drawbacks, Georgie still enjoyed it. The highlight for her was the portion of the show where Santa and Mrs Claus invite all the kids up on the stage for the reading of the Christmas wishes. G's wish, oddly enough, was for a violin :-)  I have no idea what brought on the desire for a violin but she's been alternating between that and a flute. Hmm.

Anywho, after the show, G got another opportunity to visit with Santa. Mrs Claus was there too! This makes five visits with Santa so far this year... and its not even December yet.

G was so excited about going up on the stage. She remembered from last year. She nearly sprang from her seat when they announced it was time.

Another visit with the big red guy. This time they had a cookie instead of a candy cane. G was stoked!

Merry Christmas!
HUH? Well, as of November 12th, it is Christmas at Disneyland ;-)  Crazy I know but, at least by me, not unwelcome. DL is so pretty at Christmas time. Especially if there's a bit of a chill in the air. A person can almost convince themselves that California has a winter.
 
We were headed back to Haunted Mansion and ran into Jack Skellington! G still hasn't seen the movie but she loves him.

Ever since I picked this dress up for G on a sample sale like 6 mos ago I couldn't wait to take her to see Santa at DL! I know, my life is so exciting. Haha! They have the big man set up in the ranch area at something they're calling Jingle Jangle Jamboree. Since we were there on a friday the week before Thanksgiving it wasn't too surprising to me that there weren't many people there. I think at one point we may have been the only family at the Jamboree which included a few Santa/reindeer themed games, activities and characters. It was nice because it gave G plenty of time with Santa. He admired her dress, talked to her a bit about what she wanted for Christmas, etc. So cute!

Our official Santa pic

Doing the princess twirl.

The characters were really cute in their holiday wear.

They had coloring so needless to say we spent a considerable time doing that.

Mickey was looking very dapper in his holiday finery

I have no idea why Liver Lips was there. He's kind of creepy looking, don't you think?

Then Wendell... super creepy!

Decorating the $6 cookie


Georgie the pink-nosed reindeer!

Our traditional photo in front of the Partners statue. Even though the DL castle pales in comparison to its WDW counterpart it does look pretty with the rooftop "snow"

G held her skirt out for just about every single photo. She's such a goof. All the characters had a good time finding themselves on the pattern of the skirt.

Later in the day we saw Mickey again. He must have decided to slip into something more comfortable than the top hat

Character hunting G was happy to encounter White Rabbit. I think this was the first time we'd ever gotten him.

By this point, although we'd only been there about 4.5 hrs, we'd ridden many of G's favorite rides twice, seen tons of characters and heard more Christmas music than you can imagine. This was one of the big perks of going during the week on a day that forecasted rain. G wasn't ready to leave but I assured her we'd be back the following week for more fun!