Grandma's Annual Cousin Christmas Party

Last Saturday we headed up to Grandma Dickson's house for the annual cousin party. Nathan always has a great time hanging out with all of the cousins and this year he was extra excited for the firemen. Last year Nathan was scared of the fire truck and cried when we made him get in. This year on the way up he informed that that this year he was brave and he was going to ride in the fire truck. He then proceeded to tell everyone the same thing. To bad they didn't actually give rides this year but he still had a great time sitting in the truck. And as always he was super excited to give his toy to the firemen so they could give it to some kids who are in need this year. I think this is one of my favorite Christmas traditions!

O Christmas Tree

Wow, December sure came fast this year. I think having Thanksgiving so late in the month(I know it wasn't that much later then usual.) made it seem like we were getting a late start on Christmas. One of these years I am going to be on top of it enough to do advent activities like my sister, but I once again I seemed to run out of time and lose focus. I did manage to finish almost all of my Christmas shopping. Just a few stocking stuffers and some gifts for charity and I should be set.
My Parents took Nathan this past Saturday to Santa Cruz to cut down a tree and we spent Sunday Afternoon getting it all decorated.

Girl's Trip

Sometimes you just need to get away with girlfriends. My MIL and SILs invited me to join them for a quick getaway to Disneyland. Last Sunday we left late in the afternoon to drive down to Anaheim. We got to our hotel around 10:30pm and after settling in we headed to bed so we could start our fun in the morning.
Monday we headed into Disneyland and had so much fun exploring the park and catching the shows and parades. They were in the process of taking down Halloween and decorating for Christmas. It was a whole new experience for me and I loved it. My favorite was the Haunted Mansion all decorated like Nightmare before Christmas. It was like riding a whole new ride with different music,sayings, and scenes. We had to ride it twice. We went for Dinner at the Blue Bayou, yum! Once the park closed for the night we did a little shopping in Downtown Disney and enjoyed some ice cream sundays!
Tuesday we started by going back into Disneyland to ride Space Mountain because it was closed monday. After watching a cute Princess theater show we headed over to California Adventure and had so much fun riding all the different rides. Although I love tower of terror, I really think toy story mania is my favorite ride now. Unfortunately Radiator Spring Racers was closed down for the week but it was still fun to walk through Cars Land all decked our for Christmas. After lunch and ice cream we headed back to Disneyland to enjoy a few more rides before it was time for World of Color back at California Adventure.
It was such a fun couple of days and I am so glad we decided to go, maybe we will have to make it a tradition!

                  Just before I got drenched on Splash Mountain. I was wet the rest of the day.

                          Getting ready to watch Mickey and the Magic Map.

 

Some fun on Space Mountain

                           Cars Land all decorated for Christmas.

pumpkins and costumes

On the monday before Halloween we finally got around to carving some jack-o-lanterns. Nathan like helping me trace the pattern on but wanted nothing to do with helping me clean the pumpkin out. He used the spoon to scoop out seeds once and then informed me it was to hard and I needed to finish.

                                            Brady thought he should be able to help too.

                                                         And then it was bedtime!

             At least Nathan was still happy enough for me to take a photo with the finished pumpkins.

On on the day of Halloween Nathan was excited to dress up in his costume and knock on his friends doors for candy. But first we headed over to the church for Trunk or Treat. Brady only lasted a few minutes before he got mad that I wouldn't just let him sit down in the parking lot and eat his candy. When we had gotten our fill there we headed home for some trick or treating. We made one stop on our way home at Nathan's primary teacher's home and then dropped Brady off with Grandma so we could take Nathan door to door.