The day after we left Disney we decided to stop in Santa Monica on our way back home. The Santa Monica pier is one of my favorite places. It reminds me of the piers and boardwalks in South Jersey that I grew up visiting every summer. There are always entertainers there working for tips. They range from really talented to really psychotic. My favorite one-man show on this particular day was some guy in a gorilla mask just standing next to a stereo system and occasionally swaying back and forth to the beat. he had a sign that said "Talentless, please give generisly." I thought about taking his picture, but my will to live interfered and I just kept walking instead.

There was a magician setting up a show as we were leaving the pier and he asked the forming crowd if anyone was willing to volunteer to help him out. Now, when I was a kid, if someone said "Is there a little girl in the audience who would like a $100 bill? A little girl named INGRID that would like a $100 dollar bill? Just raise your hand if you're out there!" I would have a total anxiety attack and find a table to hide under until everyone had gone home. Grady is different. Grady will raise his hand to volunteer before he even knows what he's volunteering for, he just wants to be part of the action. For all he knew, this "magician" (possibly felon) was planning on shooting his assistant out of a cannon. Grady didn't care. He wanted in.

What a creepy shot. Ew.

After the magic show, Ben took some pictures that will serve as great reminder that I need to work on toning my arms.

The boys were able to detect the presence of an arcade within one mile, so we obviously ended up there for awhile. Aidan is apparently on a very intense safari, here.

No idea.

Back at home, the kids tree in the family room.

Making cookies Christmas Eve. Aidan looks concerned.

Thank goodness Sean was here to eat the cookies left for Santa. They were some freaky looking cookies.


                                       
                                                    "OMNOMNOMSANTACOOKIES!!"

The eleven foot (or something) tree. Remember when I talked about overdoing it?

Isn't this the most bizarre and random post for January ever? I had a post that totally made sense, but Blogger ate it. I tried to recreate it using the pictures that I had used, but I have no idea what I was going for. Sorry.

Recovery

Does it take normal people a month to recover from the holidays? This year, I feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas really walloped me upside the head. Maybe it's because air travel was involved. Maybe it's because I'm ridiculous and completely overdid it this year. My gut instinct is to just blame my exhaustion on the fact that my brother was visiting for two weeks since he's the human equivalent to tornado, but it probably has more to do with me being ridiculous. (Plus, my brother was actually pretty awesome, I don't think I had to carry the baby for more than two minutes at a time while he was here.)

Anyway.

Ben's parents took us to Disneyland for Christmas. I was pretty excited about this. I had never been to a Disney park in my life, just Downtown Disney in Florida. We drove down for the day and tried to cram a lot in knowing we probably wouldn't be back for awhile. Even with the discount Ben gets from the state, a one-day one-park ticket is almost $80. I was mildly disappointed to find that these $80 tickets didn't come with a monkey or something. It seems like a lot of money to not be getting a complimentary primate kicked in.



I think we were so overwhelmed when we walked into the park that our brains kind of melted and instead of heading to an attraction or to get a FastPass ticket, we all decided instead to pretend to pull a sword out of a stone.

I think Lennox came pretty close.

Sean did not.

Another really neat experience we were treated to was a character breakfast at the Plaza Inn. I always assumed that the Disney characters just kind of roamed around the park and you could just walk up and snap a picture with them. I didn't realize people will murder you to be first in line to see Winnie the Pooh. This breakfast was awesome because so many different characters just come to your table to talk and take pictures. Or put sharp hooks against your throat as your children look on nervously (Thanks, Captain Hook)


Grady and Aidan with their buttons for the breakfast and first visit.

Lennox was digging the Fairy Godmother. She was female, so no one was really surprised.

Nose honk.

After our big breakfast, we checked out the rest of the park. Tried to. That place is massive.

Aidan especially loved Toon Town. He had so much fun exploring all of the houses. He's at such a sweet age, between wanting to be super cool but still wanting to meet Mickey.

Lennox was so excited about Toon Town that he passed out. What a maniac.

Nana Cheryl and Grady went on a roller coaster while Aidan and I explored.

New Orleans Square was gorgeous, the decorations are amazing!

Dole Whip time before hitting the Tiki Room. I think the easiest was to understand the Tiki Room would be to drop acid and then go to a pet store.

Small World all lit up for Christmas.

We had an amazing time and after mulling it over for awhile, we signed up the next day for annual passes. There was just too much left to explore to not want to go back really soon. Now I find myself geeking out on all the Disneyland message boards and reading up on all the new attractions/food/shows/crowd reports that come up and I have a feeling that most of the money we budget towards entertainment will be going towards Disney trips.

I would like to add that as much as I love Disney, if I ever turn into one of these lunatics dressed in mouse ears and a Tigger sweatsuit and carrying a fanny-pack with nine thousand pins on it, you have my permission to throw me into a ditch. I will thank you later.