Christmas and Disneyland!

My whole family got to be together for Christmas this year! It made for a house of 16 people, but a GREAT time. We had some good laughs and GREAT food.

What would Christmas be like without Addy-Claus? This was Sean's when he was a baby. I loved getting to use it again!

Every year growing up, we would go to my Grandma Christiansen's house for Christmas Eve, have ham and my mom's potato salad (yum!) and rice pudding for dessert. Now, rice pudding is sick, but there is one almond in the rice pudding that is completely whole and if you get it in your bowl of rice pudding, you win a present of some kind. I, to this day, have never won, but still choke down my bowl of rice pudding every year just hoping it will be me. Still no luck. Also we always do a little Nativity while Luke 2 is read. Emily was Mary this year, and Liah was a shepherd. This casting was decided a few weeks ago. Emily really wanted to be Mary, and Liah wasn't so sure she was okay with that. About a half hour later, she came back and announced that Emily could be Mary and that she would be a shepherd. Good for you, Liah.

Here is the nativity:

Emily as Mary:

Liah as a Shepherd:

Sean laying on the floor by me being just Sean:

Addison Tavish and Grampa Tavish

My parents' neighbor let them borrow their RV, and that is what we are staying in while we are here. It is actually quite nice with beds for all of us, and we don't have to feel like we must be completely silent at night. Also, our family of 6 is WAY too big to fit into one room here. We are loving it. The only draw back was that my brother Nathan brought his dog while he was here and of course the kids were freaked out with the dog chasing them everytime they would go between the RV and the house. Sadly kind of funny.

Here is our home away from home:

Christmas morning! Ready to go see what Santa brought???

Liah got a jewelry box and she was SO excited!

Emily got Disney princess karaoke. My little singer was thrilled.

Sean got a harmonica and a remote control car. He would have been satisfied if the only thing he received that day was a harmonica and candy. He was set.

Addison got a tummy turtle. He loves it! Also he got a jar of baby food pears in his stocking. We just might be starting that soon.

Jeremy gave me one of these for Christmas. He won it at his company Christmas party and wrapped it up for me for Christmas. I love it! (Especially because it was free!)
My brother Gavin plays basketball for BYU and he gave us a picture of the team signed by everyone on it. How cool is that?

About 15 or 20 years ago, my brother Nathan had wanted to get something for everyone for Christmas. Because he was just a little kid, he, um, invented some presents. He made a toilet paper roll football for my brother Ian, and a toilet paper roll doll for me. We all just busted up laughing when Ian and I opened our gifts from Nathan this year and found a new toilet paper roll football and doll. It was HILARIOUS.

Addison and Grampa!

We also thought this would be a fantastic time for a family picture, since who knows when we will all be together again?

The day after Christmas, we went to Disneyland!!! It was so fun! We went with my Mom, Lorie and her husband Rodrigo, my brother Ian and his wife Kristen and baby Serra, and my brother Brandon.

The coolest part is that the girls are tall enough now to go on all the rides except Indiana Jones, so I got to take them on the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain. It was AWESOME. My mom bought the picture that they take of you on the way down the huge fall. It is SOOO funny. Sean was even tall enough to go on the Matterhorn and he LOVED it. After the girls went on it, I asked Liah how she was and she says in her poutiest voice "Not GOOD!" and Emily said "I want to go home". I laughed so hard. We also took the girls on Star Tours, and Liah asked my sister if we were really in space. When Lorie said yes, Liah says "Wow, I've never been in SPACE before!"

Sean in Tarzan's treehouse. They had pots and pans and things for the kids to make music on, just like in Tarzan.

Jeremy, Addison, Kristen, Ian and Serra on Pirates of the Carribean:

We rode the Disneyland railroad and got off next to "It's a small world" 10 minutes before the parade started and got front row seats. The kids LOVED it. I dressed Addison in his Santa suit and Mrs. Claus saw Addison (he attracted a lot of attention that day), over the P.A. says "Oh! We have a first Christmas here!" Yes, that's MY little Addison.

Brandon, Liah, Lorie and Addison at the train station:

Sean and Gramma MacGregor on the Disneyland railroad:

Shoulder rides! Sean on Uncle Roggy and Liah on uncle Brandon:

Gramma, Lorie and Addy-Claus at the parade:

Brandon and Liah at the parade. Poor guy sitting between us probably got sick of my camera in his face. Sorry, random man at Disneyland.

Emily at the parade, absolutely thrilled:

They have a Princess Pavilion now where the girls can make a princess crown, and a princess comes and tells a story. Snow White came and told her story to the girls. They loved it. (The boys all went on the Matterhorn during this)

We went on Autopia. Emily rode with Brandon and Liah rode with me. It was really trippy driving on the right side of the car and pushing the gas pedal with my left foot.

They have the castle all decked out in icicles when it's Christmas time. It was really pretty.

We found Minnie right before we left.

Good stuff. Even our tram ride back to the parking garage was entertaining. Our tram driver sang us all sorts of tramified Christmas carols. My favorite of which is that old classic, "O Christmas tram".

O Christmas tram, O Christmas tram,

How lovely are your benches.

We spent the whole day at Disneyland

Now your benches looks so grand.

chorus

We never dreamed we'd walk so far,

Now all I want is to get back in my car.

chorus

I don't know if it was the cold or that we were just tired beyond imagination, but we laughed really hard.

The girls were Brandon's heaters.

All tuckered out!

Merry Christmas everyone! And Happy New Year!