A Child Again at Disneyland

I had a chance to go to Disneyland with Lori and my parents, the happiest place on Earth. Lori and Lisa needed to get to Long Beach to catch their flights home, so we drove Lisa and dropped her off at the airport, since Lori wasn't leaving until the next morning, we spent the day at Disneyland, and it was TOTALLY my dad's idea, which really blew me away.  I loved that he suggested we go to Disneyland.  I didn't feel like it was the happiest place on Earth a few days before Christmas though, it was a mad house.  There were so many people and it was so busy that it was difficult to even walk from one ride to the next.  Another issue I have is that I am significantly older than the last time my parents took me to Disneyland and my equilibrium won't let me ride any rides without getting a bit of a headache. However, even in our old age, all of us were a little giddy as the tickets were bought and we were walking down Main Street.

Since it was Christmas in just a few days, all of Disneyland was decked to the halls in wreaths, trees, ornaments, presents and all things Christmas.  Other than the decorations of a million people everywhere, it was really pretty. 

We decided to try to use our time wisely and hit up the rides with the littlest lines first and run to get the fast passes while we waited for the rides.  We had to pick the rides very carefully because Dad and I can't handle the motion of most rides.  I just have a weird head but my dad has a legit reason for not being able to ride any rides since he has Meniere's disease and the sudden motions will send him into a dizzy spell from down under (and I'm not talking about Australia). We decided that Pirates of the Caribbean should be Ok for us all since it is just a boat ride to see the moving scenes. Oh geez, we were so wrong, that ride is jerky, and the lights and the loud sounds sent dad into a really bad dizzy spell.  He closed his eyes and could barely get out of the boat.  Here we are right before the ride started.

We got off the ride and found a seat for us all to sit, dad was hoping it would pass, but it became a full fledge attack, so we called the Disneyland EMT, and they came with a wheelchair and took us to their small clinic down Main Street.  Dad said he just needed to sleep it off and for us to go have fun without him.  So after giving the nurse our phone numbers, and making sure he was asleep, we left to continue our adventures feeling a little less excited and awful bad for dad.

We had fast passes for the haunted mansion, so we went straight to the mansion and waited only about 20 minutes to get on the ride.  The entire ride has completely changed since I last went years ago.  The ride is now completely centred around The Nightmare Before Christmas and Jack Skeleton.  It is significantly less scary (or I am much older and it doesn't scare me).  The decorations were really rad, and I enjoyed the change, because I don't do well with scary.  

After the Haunted Mansion, we wanted to check out the new Star Wars section of the park.  The Star Wars part actually just opened, and it was so fun to see it all fresh and clean.  Since the rides were not open yet and maybe people didn't know it was open, it was not busy with a million people so I super enjoyed walking through this land.  I am not a huge Star Wars fan, I actually haven't even seen all the movies, but I could defiantly appreciate the attention to detail.

At one point, as we were walking between buildings it sounded as though one of the Star Wars ships flew right over our head, we all ducked and looked around trying to find where the plane was, only to laugh and realise it was just a really good sound effect.  The Falcon ship was really impressive, it looked as if they got the real one from the set, maybe they did.

We left Star Wars Land and decided it wasn't a true trip to Disneyland without a ride on It's a Small World.  The line was still about 30 minutes long, so we got in line and just talked and laughed.  I have never had to wait in line for Small World, so this just proves how crazy busy it was.  

As we were about to depart the boats, the lights of It's a Small World suddenly turned on in all their colourful glory.  It was fun to see it all lite up and crazy bright.

Mom got a call from dad letting us know he was good as new and he was able to sleep the attack off. We ran back to the clinic to check dad out.  We were all starving by this time, especially dad, so we decided to grab some food to go and try to get the battling piano show at the Golden Horseshoe.  Dad didn't want to go in the room with all the loud people and music echoing off all the walls, so he took up a bench right outside and we were able to find a balcony seat.  Mom, Lori and I were super excited because this is usually my favourite show.  Let's just say that even though we were right on the balcony, we left after only a few minutes.  Gosh, it was boring and nothing compared to their old show, Bill Hill and the Hill Billy's.  I miss that show, it was my favourite, and sadly the battling pianos just didn't live up to Bill Hill and his battling fiddles.

Our next stop was at the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride.  Dad insisted that he would be OK and that this is one ride he really enjoyed, so we got in line and waited about a half hour to get on.  This is really a fun ride!  You go around trying to shoot all the aliens and creatures with the gun on your ride.  Dad ended up beating us all by at least six times, it was crazy.

By the time the Buzz ride was done, the castle was all lit up and the Christmas Parade was to start within the hour.  We wanted decent seats, so decided to stake out seats and eat food while we waited.
The castle was super bright and so pretty. It looked like Elsa's castle, and I'm not sure if the was on purpose or not.

Our parade waiting paid off because we had fabulous seats for the parade.  We enjoyed the floats, music, dancing and singing.  I love parades, so I was in my happy place, and I loved every second of it.  It was fun being here with my oldest sister, Lori and my parents.  It made me feel like a kid again.  

Before we headed for the exit, Lori and Dad came with me to check out Mickey's Toon Town.  Sadly, we were too late and it was closed.  I was really hoping to get a picture with all of us and Mickey or Minnie, but I'll take a memory of running to Toon town instead and finding it closed.  I loved that they went along with my wish to get together with Mickey.  I sure love that I had this experience with Lori and my Mom and Dad!  It is a memory I will treasure, even with the millions of people and Dad's attack, it was a great day.  Thanks Mom and Dad, I love you!

California: Heather says Farewell to Two Aunts

Two of my Aunts, my dad's sisters, passed away this December within weeks of each other.  I felt the impact pretty hard and wanted to be there to support my parents and my extended family.  I was able to find a plane ticket really cheap, so I quickly scrambled to get the kids situated and find babysitters while Kevin was at work.  A few days later, I was on a plane taking a super long flight to California.  It was about 24 hours total of travel time from when I left my house until I got to my parents house.  I didn't know if I could make it work, so I didn't tell my parents I was coming.  I called Erilynne, Kevin's sister and she picked me up from the airport.  I got to mom's house and rung the door bell.  When she answered the door she just cried and cried.  It was super special to be able to completely surprise her.  About 30 minutes after I arrived, all of my other siblings drove up.  They all had flights that came in about the same time in LAX and Long Beach, so they just rented one car.  I had a layover in LAZ, and they were trying to convince me to skip my last flight and just drive with them, ut I was too tired to sit in a car that long, when I could just sit in an airport longe then take less then an house flight to Fresno.  

The next morning was my Aunt Gloria's funeral.  Aunt Gloria was a really close Aunt to us.  The McCauley's lived the closest to us and were the same age as a lot of my siblings, so we spent a lot of time and holidays with them.  Aunt Gloria was at all my events, all my graduations and big life things.  She was very much like Grandma McNaughton and always reminded me of her.  She was a classy, gorgeous, and funny woman.  My sisters, Misty, Lisa and Lori were all in the car with me and we were getting ready to drive away, when mom came out and made a sad face and asked if there was room for her.  Of courses e said, so she ditched the guys and smiling from ear to ear jumped in the car with the girls.

After the funeral, there was a beautiful luncheon at the chapel.  It was the best luncheon ever and one I think Aunt Gloria fully supported.  There were jokes made, hugs, smiles, stories and families catching up.  It was so wonderful to see cousins I haven't seen in over 15 years.  We have such a big family, it was wonderful to see the majority of the family.

My family, with just my parents and siblings wanted to get pictures all together, because it has been a super long time since we were all together.  It is so much fun being family with these crazy people.  We all have different personalities and different likes and live all over the world, but we are family.  And Families are forever.

We did get some nice pictures too, lol.  The nice pictures were far less than the funny ones. There was always one of us goofing off or rolling our eye balls.

 After the funeral, we went to Costco.  It was fun walking around the warehouse store.  The family really only had the one day together since Misty and Steve had to get home the next morning.  We spent the rest of the day eating, talking and just catching up.

But, before we divided once more, as siblings we decided to try to recreate a picture we took years ago when we were together in Utah.  It took a few tries, but I think in the end we ended up nailing it.  I wish I had the originals photo, but I don't.  If I ever find it, I will be adding it so you can compare the two pictures.  We had a good laugh trying to recreate the picture. We also learned that Misty and Lori are not as flexible as they once were.

The next day, after Misty and Steve left, Lisa, Lori and I went to visit Aunt Nancy one last time.  She has been given hours to days to live.  We were hoping to be able to support her family by staying for her funeral also, but the timing just wasn't right.  We enjoyed a visit with her and with her daughter Kelly.  It was sweet to talk to her.  Lisa had a really hard time saying good bye.  I didn't know Aunt Nancy as well as Lisa did, so I'm glad all together we were able to come. It was real special to be here.

St. Wendel's Medieval Christmas Market

Christmas Markets are "The Thing" to do during November and December here in Germany.  There re so many Christmas Markets that it is overwhelming picking which ones to visit.  We also learned a little too late that each one is open during a specific time and only particular weekends.  We missed a few due to missing the dates that they are open.  We also had so many commitments on almost every weekend that it made it hard to make it to any Christmas Markets.  However, we did make it to St. Wendel's Christmas Market.  We started by finding an area where miniature houses had been made.  Some of the houses had moving people or parts.  Monster really liked the moving miniature house display, but the other kids all thought they were a little creepy.

St. Wendel's Christmas Market was so huge.  It went down this street and went on forever.  We were told that there is a man made sledding hill that kids can ride a tube down for free, so that was my number one destination.  While searching for the tubbing hill we walked past hundreds of little booths selling things from little villages, ornaments and food to knick knacks, snacks and Christmas gifts.  The different booths were really fun to see.

We wanted to try some of the local food, so we got some crepes and then some small tube things that tasted like churros.  It wouldn't be a Christmas Market without trying the Kinderpunch.  So we got a few glasses to share.  It tasted like hot fresh berries and cider.  We all really liked the Kinderpunch.

After walking around a good hour we finally found the sledding hill.  The kids went down twice each and had a blast.  Kevin went down with Monster and it was pretty hard getting him away from the snow hill.

We kept exploring after the sledding hill and found another huge area of booths.  These booths all had more medieval and antiques things being sold.  The kids were super excited because they found an archery range, we let all the kids shoot off about 5 arrows each.  Even Monster took a try at the bow. All the kids said they missed the Archery Cafe after they each took a turn.

It was getting really late, and it was so extremely cold, so we decided to try to find our way back to our car.  We did take the time to walk slow and check out the booths and merchandise as we passed.

Other than being super freezing, we all loved the Christmas Market.  It was fun to see the variety of food products and homemade items all being sold.  We even saw a Harry Potter booth in which all the kids went bonkers.  I enjoyed it, but I did not enjoy the kids all begging for different things.  Next time, I just need to have the kids earn money beforehand, then let them buy whatever they want with the money they earned.  I think I will make it more enjoyable.  

Bernkasel-Kues Christmas Market

Hi guys. This is Big sis and I'm gonna tell y'all all about our adventure to the Bernkasel-Kues Christmas market!

I do have to say that the village looks much more different than what it looked like in the summer time. It looked so much more cute and more like a little winter wonderland. 

After we arrived, we just explored around the very big street of Christmas stands and a huge square of life size German Christmas decorations. 

While walking around and looking at everything, we found a house that looked so festive. As we got closer, we realised that it wasn't just any house, it was a huge house that was the towns advent calendar. 

Everyday, in December, at 7:00 pm, they would open one of the windows and display a painting of a Disney character. Before the reveal of the picture for that day, two old men would come out and sing German Christmas carols, concluding with a certain song that everyone seemed to know by us, and that day would be removed and the picture for that day was placed in the window. Fun tradition to participate in every night! Today, when we saw them display the new picture, which was Elsa and Anna from the movie "Frozen". It was funny to see the other 6 pictures on the house.

I did however wonder what it looked like completely filled up with Disney character. That would be something really funny to see. While walking around the town square, we found some little stands with kinder punch. What me and M&M found out was that every town had its own special twist to the kinder punch. Our town had the extra flavor of orange, another town's was pomegranate. This town was cherry. It's so much fun tasting all the different versions of the punch in different towns.

It's also super fun because we can keep the cups and each cup is different depending of the town. We have collected many different mugs. I don't think that we will need any new hot chocolate mugs for a while. Haha. 

One the way back to the car, because it was starting to get extremely cold, we found a huge life size German candle windmill. it mini form, it is a decoration usually only found in Germany and is made of wood with little decorations on the inside, often a scene of the nativity. And when you light the candle underneath the little windmill hands, it spins. 

As we were leaving, Monster really wanted to go on the merry-go-round, so he went on it for a ride. Once monster's ride was done we called it a day and went back home with some kinder punch mugs, and the Christmas spirit. Merry (early) Christmas!