Nativity Plays, Disneyland and Engaged Relatives!

One of my dreams came true! All 3 of my kids were in a Nativity play, and it was the sweetest thing on earth! Stanton was a wise man. Noelle was an angel (with pink rain boots) and Winston was Baby Jesus. All of the kids were so cute! It melted my heart!
We decorated gingerbread houses with the cousins, such a good time!
Robert decided to decorate Winston. Winston's response to being iced and candied was to spit up all over Robert's arm.
A great time at the train park with friends!
Stanton's pre-school had their Christmas program. It was precious! They asked Grandpa Dan to come out as Santa at the end, and of course, he was more than willing because he's a man who loves to wear a costume.
When the time came for him to get dressed and come out, I realized that I'd forgotten the Santa suit at home. Having no Santa could've potentially ruined Christmas for all of the children at Wiggle Worm pre-school. I was gonna be the Mom who ruined Christmas!
I pictured their mouths hanging open a minute or two and all the kids from the pre-school crying boo-hoo. I was about to cry myself until...
Grandpa Dan said, "Don't worry. I keep a reindeer costume in my car."
So Grandpa Rudolph came instead, decked out in reindeer pants, shirt, antlers, bells, big red nose and huge fake eyelashes. My camera battery died, but it would've been a fantastic picture!
I don't know why he and my mom keep a reindeer costume in their car, but I am so glad they do. The kids liked Rudolph even better than Santa. He was a big hit!
The next day we went to California to visit Great Grandma Hurley. We walked around the island and saw tons and tons of lights and then watched the Balboa boat parade. It was seriously so much fun!
The next day we went to Disneyland! It rained the whole day, but that didn't stop us from having 12 hours of very wet fun!
Noelle loved looking at the princesses, not talking to them, just starring at them. Tinkerbell was her favorite. She was so friendly, and chatty. I think I would've liked to be have a job as a Disney princess, maybe Mulan or Pocahontas.
Noelle loved watching the princess coronation ceremony, but what she did not like was being told to dance around the ribbon pole to become a princess. I pulled out every dance move I had trying to get her to dance around it with me, but she was not having it. Maybe she was worried they'd make her trade in her pink boots for glass slippers.
And I'll tell you what Stanton didn't like, being called up on stage by this lady in waiting during the Sleeping Beauty story time to dance with Princess Aurora while this goofy guy sang "Once Upon a Dream."
I liked it though! I got the whole thing on video. It was soooo darling! Stanton was completely expressionless during the entire dance, but she spun him around and called him a "dream come true."
His only comment afterward was, "That was not fun."
He did, however, like meeting Darth Mal. When we tried to get Noelle to go up for the picture with them, she cried, "Noooo. He is creepy, and he has gross teeth."
Stanton also loved making his own lightsaber from scratch. He chose every piece himself, and put it together with Daddy and Uncle Alex. Having Alex on the trip with us made it extra fun! He and Stanton were inseparable!
We got to spend the whole next day with Aunt Adrienne, who is now engaged! Congratulations to her! We are SO excited!
And now she doesn't have to humor me when I try to set her up with a menagerie of eligible batchelors, just to name a few:
the short wrestler/body builder who was obsessed with protein shakes,
the piano/organ tuner guy who spent the entire date describing how he tickles the ivories,
the guy who I described to her as "he never puts his guitar down, but he looks like a cross between Jack Johnson and James Blunt, if James Blunt didn't look like he had AIDS",
and last but not least, the guy, who I thought looked like Tom Cruise with his head shaved, that I almost set her up with, until I found out that he was only 2 years younger than her Dad. (To my credit, the guy looks SUPER young!)
She has been such a good sport with all of the blind date debacles I put her through, and I am beyond words excited for her and Colton!