Home For Christmas!!

Better late than never!


We were blessed to be able to go down to California for Christmas!

It was a long drive, but so worth it!

It was so nice to spend time with my family! Although I hate how frequently I miss things by living so far away, I was so excited to be home when Amber got her driver's license!!

We went to my Grandma and Grandpa Schultz's for Apple Valley Christmas!
It was SO fun to see all of my family and spend time with them too.
We played Minute to Win It!
Jenny is awesome and had such a fun idea!
The first game you had to move the cups from the top to the bottom of the stack, until the blue one made it through the entire stack. It was harder than it looks!
KR and I went head to head and I came out the victor!

After several rounds, we had a final championship round! This time Tyler was the winner!!
His prize: a mug with candy in it! Woo!

The next game involved pencils. You start out with one pencil, you balance it on the back of your hand and you pop it up in the air and catch it. Each time you do it successfully, you add another pencil, until there are 12! I wasn't very good, but this was a cool picture.

KR was the champion of this game; his prize: a giant pencil!

Cute sisters :)

"My phone is cooler than yours"- typical.

An AV Christmas wouldn't be complete without the chimes!!
KR finally got to experience the chimes- man, I gotta get a video of this up here so you can better understand....

More cute girls.

Uncle Dan told them he'd give them $20 each to sing Jingle Bells as a duet. They made sure he was serious first, and then they did it. Then, he paid up!

And traditionally, we ended with Uncle Dan reading Luke 2 and Grandpa reading Santa and the Mouse, racial slur and all ;) I love tradition and I love my family- even if it gets a bit crazy sometime.
Next year, byoc. he he.

Christmas Eve is Jen's birthday and this year she turned 20!!!! WHOA!!!
Of course, we went to IHOP- tradition- and we had so much fun!

Evil eye!

During the afternoon, we had down time and decided to hit the beach!! It was so nice to be back!

I liked this dedication on this bench on the pier. I would like one that says the exact same thing- except with my name. Which is what, KR??

We had a delicious dinner except there was one mishap- exploding potato! haha.

Christmas Eve tradition- new pajamas- the only gift we get to open that night.
Cute!

KR's first pair of Christmas Eve pajamas! (his didn't match though)

I know I look silly in this picture, but I just love how warm and happy it looks- such a cozy Christmas Eve!

Christmas Morning!!

We started our Christmas with Amber's giant present in the corner containing her boyfriend, Nathan! It scared the heck out of her (and me) but it was so cute!

We were spoiled and received some great gifts. We also got gas money! Look how creative my parents are though! It's all about presentation! I thought it was so cute!

The most exciting gift though, was Laker tickets!!! We're going to the game in the Rose Garden in February! We are SOO excited!!

After we opened all our presents, we went to Jeff and Dani's (my uncle and aunt- dad's brother) for our traditional Christmas breakfast! Delicious food!

We played Catch Phrase and played with this adorable little girly, Adelaide (my cousin Stephanie's daughter)!

Later we had a delicious Christmas dinner (food, what the holidays are all about? hehe of course not, but definitely a bonus).
After dinner, we played Just Dance on the Wii..... OH MY GOSH! I am addicted (well I was until my pie wasn't too happy with me)!!
So fun! I got a lot of fun pictures, but this one is my favorite!!

We got to take another trip down to the beach- ah I miss it and it's so beautiful! We took a nice long walk and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine!

One night we went to Rainforest Cafe! I always love going to this restaurant, especially the one at Downtown Disney. The atmosphere is outstanding and it only added to my excitement that we were coming back the next day to go to Disneyland!!
Marissy, Bambi and Boofy!
Shmen, me and King R.


The next day, we were lucky enough to go to Disneyland!! It was a beautiful clear but extremely cold and nippy day but we had a blast regardless!

(go-fast hair)

We checked out a book from the library about the hidden mickeys. I've been to Disneyland my entire life, millions of times, and I've always heard about the hidden mickeys but only ever knew where one was (for sure anyway). This was SO fun to really take the time to look. Each Mickey is assigned a point value and it was a fun idea to try and get as many points we could. We made a great team and probably found over 60 or 70 of them! Many were during the ride or throughout the line while waiting. We couldn't really take pictures of any, but this one was very well-earned and KR had to take a picture to prove it to me (he had to climb up in the tree house on Tom Sawyer Island, where only kids go up and the fit was pretty tight).
See it on top of that chimney? It looks like it was drawn in the sand or something.

I always LOVE going to Disneyland, and this time was no different. We had so much fun and it was just magical! We got to see the new show, World of Color and it was AMAZING! I am in love!!

Spoiler Alert: if you plan on seeing this show, wait until you see it live. Otherwise, here are a few videos.


For New Years Eve, we first went to Cafe Rio!

Then we went to my cousin Sandra and her husband Tyler's house where we played games with other couples and rang in the New Year!! Happy 2011!!!

We had a wonderful trip and I always love going home to see my family and being back in California. But...it was nice to get home and sleep in our own bed. he he.