A Very Disney Christmas! Day 1

Saturday ~ Disneyland ~

After staying up all night and waking Awsumb early in the morning to get to the airport and reveal The BIG Disney Surprise, By the time we checked into the hotel and got over to the park it was about 11am.  First up you gotta get your Christmas Mickey Ears!  The best value in the park for sure. Awsumb has a few different colors and styles.  Isn't this Christmas plaid so cute? 

Disneyland was all decked out for the holidays! 

The big tree was beautiful! 

So we had to get a few family pictures.

Although I had seen pictures of the castle at Christmas,

 I was still amazed at how beautiful it was! 

At night it looked like an ice castle.

The park was SUPER crowded. 

And we skipped fantasyland altogether. 

Somehow we weave our way through the crowds to

 

The Jungle Cruise  (check our Weird Al's sade tale of Skipper Dan!)

Because we had been up since 3am after Pirates we were ready for lunch at the Blue Bayou.  After lunch it was time to get this Christmas party started at the Haunted Mansion Holiday.  Kenneth made a silly joke and the fast pass attendant sent us through to the front of the line!

Then it was off to ride Big Thunder Mountain or as we call it the Wildest Ride in the WEIRDerness!    Awsumb spotted Woody and Jesse from Toy Story on the way and we had to get a photo. 

And finally it was time to go to the Disneyland Ranch for a Visit with Santa.  Lot's of locals, but the line wasn't too long and Santa's cabin was pretty cute.  Awsumb asked Santa to surprise him!  Obviously he is well cared for and doesn't have a want in this world! LOL!  Mrs. Claus was also there and we were so looking forward to seeing her.  By the time it was our turn she had some cookies burning or something and dissapeared!  insert frowny face!

Awsumb did get to see Pluto, who was was having an identity crisis. The ranch had some animals including the 2009 Thanksgiving Turkey pardoned by the President.  (Did you know they sent them to Disneyland?  How do you think they make those giant smoked turkey legs! Just Kidding!)  We also saw all Santa's favorite Reindeer and Awsumb thought that was a lot of fun.  It was hard to take photos of the real reindeer, because they had set up such a protective barrier to keep them safe from kids I guess, and all I ended up with was butt shots, so here's Awsumb and PLUTO

Fantasyland was a mad house and we headed over to the Matterhorn. When the rickitiest ride in the park breaks down when your in line and you stay in line because that makes it all the more exciting you know your an addict.  We enjoyed some treats like a Mickey dream bar and ended up with a pretty resonable wait. 

We got off just in time to catch the  Christmas Parade from the raised parade viewing by small world.  I think we waited longer for the parade to get to us than for any other rides on our trip!

And finally Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear and it was getting dark - time for fireworks!  We were looking forward to the special Christmas display.  After picking the perfect spot to eat dinner with a great view of the castle we waited and waited and well, 30 minutes after they were supposed to start we found out they were canceled due to winds (which must have been way up high!?!)  Seriously, there was not even a breeze!

All the waiting and well, you can see Awsumb was dead tired.  We decided to call it a day when he woke up and begged to go on Indiana Jones before we left the park.   We obliged because we had fast passes.  And after a quick ride through Pirates again we finally got back to our hotel about 11pm.

Here are just a few quick iphone shots.You can see we only managed about 18 attractions.  Definately not our usual routine. Did I tell you it was very crowded?  But a great first day.  The boys fell asleep the moment they hit their pillows.  Day 2 -3 coming up...