2019 Holidays Plus

Well, here's a first.  I am rolling 3 holidays into 1 convenient blog post!

 Halloween was a bit different for us this year.  We had two girls working the church Harvest Party, so we just dropped them off with these put-together-that-day costumes.  Ella was a pig in a blanket and Delia re-purposed a dance costume to be a flapper girl.  Ella later went trick or treating with her friends, where she switched to her old milk carton costume to match her cow-costumed friends.  Halloween with older kids felt a little strange this year!

Thanksgiving looked a little different for us this year too.  Some years we get to host a house full of family visitors.  Some years we are blessed to sit around someone else's table.  Some years are a little more relaxed and low key, so we get to try new things-- like helping at the Community Center Thanksgiving dinner and a late night pajama party at the movie theater.

A word about our awesome kids.  Above was an email one of Delia's teachers sent us this fall.  Below is a super fun date I got to take with Ella and her cast of Singin' in the Rain.  We all went to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers performed by an impressive college in Sacramento.  The play was incredible, but my favorite part was watching this encouraging group of high school actors be the first to leap to their feet for a standing ovation.  Ella said they all just know what it means to the people on stage and wanted to be sure to give the college cast that same gift.  Ella loved touring the college too and starting to picture herself in that sort of life in just a few short years.

Now for Christmas-y stuff!  Christmas traditions are alive and well, though a bit scaled back perhaps. I had two nice meals with the fun teachers I work with.

We decorated our house-- including Ivy's dog kennel!

 We viewed Christmas lights.

 We spent the first few days of break catching up on sleep!

 We did our annual before-Christmas toy purge.  Fun for Ella and I (who tend to run on the more organized end of the spectrum) was spending a day digging through the LEGO tub and bagging up all our sets.  Good times! ;)

We watched a Christmas movie or two, were visited by Sinterklaas, baked cookies, read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", drank plenty of warm drinks, and we sent out our Christmas cards.   

As the kids get older and busier, our holidays and traditions are starting to look a little different.  Things like gingerbread houses, the Nutcracker, and the Elf on the Shelf taper off, and get replaced with youth group parties and white elephant exchanges with friends.  I once again feel that perfect contentment that we're in a great stage of life, but carry sweet memories of fun holiday times from when the kids were small.

The Messiah

In 6th grade, our teacher had us memorize all the scripture texts of The Messiah, then he took us to see the Chicago Symphony perform it. For the first time since 6th grade, Dave and I experienced the power of The Messiah’s message of salvation, being proclaimed by world class musicians. Hearing another big city's symphony sing The Messiah (this time San Francisco) was Dave's Christmas present and we're happy to report we appreciated it a bit more than we did in 6th grade! 

Half the joy of experiencing this was taking our music-loving kids  Though they've been listening to The Messiah their whole lives and can sing along to most of it, Delia did confess some nerves that she'd be bored.  But, when it was over, they declared it "awesome" while we clapped till our hands hurt for a standing ovation that brought the soloists back to stage 3 times.  Between the exuberant, arm-waving conductor, the impassioned, almost-falling-off-their-chairs strings players, the booming chorus of 100 voices, the goosebumps-inducing soloists, the gorgeous symphony hall, and all the Bible verses I had for her to look up, there was enough to keep the girls' attention for almost 3 hours.

The whole night was lovely.  We had dinner at a cozy little bistro halfway between our parking spot and the symphony hall.  It had just right (read: not too fancy or expensive ;) delicious food and drink for all of us!  And we got there early enough to enjoy a stroll around the festively-decorated lobby and the outside balconys' views of the neighboring iconic City Hall building.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever.
King of kings, Lord of lords.

 I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power to be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen

2019 Family Photos

A budding photographer friend of ours is going on a mission trip and had the great idea to raise funds for it by selling family photo shoots.  We love to support mission trips!  And, Dave's appearance has changed significantly this year and he was not loving any of the pictures we took this summer with mountains, waterfalls, and deserts as the back drop, so we were in need of some good pictures anyway!  Win-win!

Of the 50 pictures we got back, these are my 12 favorites.  You'll be seeing some combination of them on this year's VM Family Christmas card! ;)

Spontaneous Disney, Part 3

Our third day in the park was a Saturday...the first Saturday of Christmas in Disney and it was NUTS!  We saw a definite increase in the crowds and lines.  Though this day was designed to be the park-hopper day that allowed us to go back and revisit all our favorite things, we couldn't help but feel a bit entitled.  It was hard to wait over an hour for things we had walked right onto the day before!  So, we adjusted the plan and took it a bit easier instead, trying to see and do things we'd never done before.

We started the day in California Adventure, and before the crowds got too bad, we did manage one more ride on our new favorite roller coaster!

We also took a couple different classes at the Animation Academy, where you sit in cushy seats for one peaceful half hour, being led through the step-by-step instructions for how to draw classic Disney characters from one of their legit animators.  Ella found her Disney dream job here!

After lunch we made our way back to Disneyland.

 The day before, while we were waiting at the entrance for Kara, we bumped into some friends from school!  What are the chances?!  This wonderful family actually has a son in Delia's grade who has been a long-time friend (and sometimes crush ;) of hers!  It was fun to see them initially, but even more crazy to bump into them another FOUR times over the weekend!!  And once could not have been more random-- on the somewhat deserted Pirate's Lair Island, where we both had the idea to escape crowds!  We finally made plans to intentionally meet up with them later in the day and had the best time riding Big Thunder Mountain together, which Delia did ride with Drew...much to her delight! 

On the Pirate's Lair Island we had some more fun with picture recreating at the treasure that marks the end of the adventure hike.

 Not really being in a hurry to get on rides, or cross things off a to-do list, we said "Sure!" when an old-fashioned fire truck driver asked if we wanted to ride around Main Street with him!  We also walked around the Main Street shops that we'd never paid attention to and stopped in the Disney museum to see some incredible pieces of history from the park.  We took a long train ride, which was actually pretty unimpressive, but became full of more funny family jokes.  And we checked out all the little kiddie rides that strangely the kids had never been on in our rush to do bigger things in the past-- like Snow White, Pinocchio, or the Storybook Land boats.   The day was much slower-paced, but still full of fun memories!

 On the day we headed home, we spent the morning at Downtown Disney.

 And then met Anna for a couple hours for lunch and a sweet life catch-up sesh!  How we love this girl and what a treat to hear all about the exciting progress on the movie she wrote or Derek's new job with NBC/Universal!  We said goodbye with long hugs and plans to reunite sometime soon in Colorado (you up for it, Heather?!).

And then, after an average of 15 hours spent walking 15 miles each day for the past 3 days, we spent our 5 hour drive home doing this!  Another perk to doing Disney with teenagers!  

This whole trip was the greatest gift-- given to us by Kara, by members of our congregation, and by God who opened all the doors for us to spontaneously pause life for some silly time together meeting Spiderman, dancing with Starlord, screaming on rides, watching fireworks go off right in front of us, riding roller coasters with boys we kinda like, crashing the Millennium Falcon, getting in the Christmas spirit, making new memories, and sharing lots of laughter.

Spontaneous Disney, Part 2

Our second free day had us at the Disneyland park.  This was the first day that all the Christmas things opened.  This was something we had never experienced and was so impressive, it was worth the trip all by itself!

 We stayed at a little off-property hotel that had us driving into the parks each day and taking our first ride on the tram from the parking garage.  Oh the excitement of that tram ride taking you to a day that you just knew was going to be full of fun!

Even though our day before at California Adventure was so great and full of some of what would be our favorite memories, the girls were still most excited about revisiting Disneyland.  Those classic rides, like Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Matterhorn Bobsleds and Space Mountain, never disappoint and just can't be beat!

So, a quick word about lines and crowds.  These first two days in the parks were week days and the day before and the day of Christmas stuff opening.  The crowds were pleasantly light.  In fact, we walked onto most things with little lines and it was awesome!  Splash Mountain was a new ride for Delia, who was too young and scared to ride it on previous visits.  As we were making our way to the new Star Wars land we passed this ride and it had NO line at all. Since it is a headliner, and tends to get busy, Dave suggested we just quick hop on.  It was morning and still cool.  The girls and I were hesitant, but Dave assured us over and over that "we wouldn't get that wet."  Well, you probably guessed it, some of us got completely soaked!  It became a funny joke for the rest of the day, as was this picture of us on the drop with complete terror on our faces!

Star Wars Galaxy's Edge was really cool!  This land was so immersive, we couldn't help but be impressed by it from an artistic perspective.  We kept quoting that line in Jurassic Park, "We spared no expense", because it seemed every single detail was intentional and contributed to a feeling of really being in an alien land.  We walked through the market.

 We stood right by the life-sized Millennium Falcon.  We walked through the droid shop.  We were threatened by a Storm Trooper.  

And we rode the Smugglers' Run ride.  This is an interactive, changes each time you ride it, kind of ride.  The line alone was so neat!  At one point you can sit in that famous round booth inside the Falcon.

  

The ride is fun because each person is assigned a different job and how well you do it actually impacts the ride.  We rode a few times and were able to try all the different jobs. Delia loved being the gunner because she got to aim and shoot at bad guys while on the wild ride and it was like the best video game ever.

Dave and Ella liked being the captains and actually steering the Falcon, but it was hard!  When they crashed it into things, we all felt it!  The ride is a creative idea, but it did make those of us prone to motion sickness feel a little ill.  I liked the engineer job because then I didn't have to look at what was happening around us and could just focus on pressing all my buttons and switches as they lit up.  Though it was sometimes bumpy, we did succeed at all our missions!

So fun on this Disney trip was having brave kids who had no problem riding all the bigger, darker rides.  Except for Indiana Jones.  Being our more sensory triggered kid, Delia was not so sure about this one that famously has things pop out at you.  As we took off, I took this picture that also had us giggling all day.  This is a real look of fear and bravery on her sweet face!  She ended up liking the ride, but didn't need to do it more than once. :)

  

Christmas at Disney is quite the thing to see!  Entire rides, like It's a Small World and the Haunted Mansion, got complete festive makeovers. 

The parades and shows were all Christmas themed.

The castle is lit up with icicles and lights.

Disney's magic even makes it snow on Main Street a couple times each night!!

And the facade of It's a Small World is simply jaw-dropping!

Another favorite memory of the whole trip happened in this spot as the nighttime fireworks show was about to begin.  Not being huge fans of huge crowds, we opted to skip the battle for a good viewing spot and hop on a ride instead.  We walked past what seemed like every person in the park camped out on blankets that they'd spread hours earlier in front of It's a Small World and got in line for it.  Then, as we stood in line, with the most magnificent front row seats ever, that we WALKED RIGHT UP TO, the fireworks and light show started!  We could not have planned it better!  We actually sat in our little Small World boat watching this show with no one closer.  We couldn't even believe how lucky we got and how amazing it was-- it felt like the show was just for us. :)

A similar thing happened again at the Fantasmic show late at night.  We were just strolling, considering stopping to watch it, when a section of VIP seats that never got used opened right up as we walked by. The cast member asked if we wanted them and of course we did!  So, again, without waiting at all, we scored the best seats to another iconic and amazing show, and one we'd never seen before and LOVED.

We started the day with high expectations and lots of excitement and our second day in Disneyland was all we hoped it would be!  Lots of fun new things, like Star Wars, Christmas, and new shows and rides, for us to experience and marvel over!