About: Christmas at Disneyland 2019

Since it's been exactly 2 months since Christmas (what? how?) it's a great time to post about our amazing, wonderful, magical, 4-day, vacation to Disneyland during the Holidays! This fireworks shot was from the first night - we watched "Believe in Holiday Magic" right away just in case future shows were cancelled for wind - it's such a beautiful show, with the "White Christmas" finale and snowfall... it was the best way to end the first day.

 Mom and Dad took us all to the Happiest Place on Earth as our Knight-McConnel-Miller family vacation. They wanted to take advantage of the military discount sooner than later since there were rumors that the discount might not be renewed for 2020 (however, it was). My pictures are not in any sort of order and there are a lot of them - one of the newer challenges of blogging is that the Blogspot app no longer works on cell phones (which would've actually been a lot easier), and since I switched to a MacBook everything about using the website is more complicated... and my pictures being all mixed up is just a side-effect.... Anyway, back to the fun...

It was a treat to fly to Anaheim since we didn't really have the time to take off for driving there and back. It was very fun until we landed and our SuperShuttle (which we had booked separately although it was for the same flight/time) didn't show for about an hour, although the rest of the group got theirs pretty quickly. Also it was already pretty late, plus the time change... we were in bed about 1:30 in the morning. We cancelled our return trip with them and schedule a Lyft, which was very fast and easy, and cheaper to boot. We stayed at our usual, the Del Sol, right across the street, with a "family" room, and a basic continental breakfast. 

Disneyland is always good, but at Christmas it's just.... extra. Decorations and music and food and all of it. 

 Of course, to master the day, you have to start right at opening and get on as many e-tickets as possible before the crowds really show up. Which means that someone (me) gets to hang out with Carolina who is not a fan of the mountains... she's so cute though.

 

 There is such a thing as "churro toffee" and so they made a "toffee churro" - it was everything.  

As soon as we could, we headed to Galaxy's Edge - or Star Wars Land - because none of us had seen it since it opened! It was very exciting to be able to have this new experience together, and watch dad who was definitely the most excited of us all. We rode on Millennium Falcom: Smuggler's Run (a mouthful) and really enjoyed it!

 Later on in the week we were able to get into Oga's Cantina and try all the alien drinks...

Including blue milk - which was nasty. 

 That same day dad and Liam had an appointment at the Droid Depot where they each made their own unique BB units. Liam had been saving and planning this purchase for a while.

 The lines to visit Santa were always pretty long, but you can hang out and chat with Mrs. Claus without a problem. She is so adorable.

The Michaelson's met us in the park for the day! It was so fun to catch up (and be weird) together at Disney!

 "it's a small word holiday" is always a hit - and was definitely Alice's favorite ride this time around.

The second day was primarily spent at Disney California Adventure - it was a chilly morning and our first stop was warm coffee, but look at this beautiful tree just inside one of the little shops. You could take hundreds of pictures of all the different Christmas trees alone.

 I was really looking forward to seeing CarsLand all decked out for Christmas since the last time I was there during the holidays CarsLand didn't even exist! Santa Mater was ready for pictures!

I was ready for a snack! This peppermint soft serve Christmas Tree cone was the best. thing. I. ate.

 See - more trees - so clever!

One of the kids favorite things to do in this park is go to the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and just run and play - so of course we planned time for that, and found that it was even more fun than usual as it was also decorated and included a Christmassy scavenger hunt and a cookie making station. 

One of my favorite memories from a previous visit to Disneyland was decorating gingerbread Mickey cookies with Jen on Main Street. I was definitely looking forward to letting the kiddos have a similar experience - theirs were snowman Mickey sugar cookies. Liam's came out really cute!

This was my cookie - I bought it like this. Disneyland gingerbread is my absolute favorite. 

 Look at this adorable little set up under the main tree in DCA!

 Then one of the most fun memories happened that evening - I had made a reservation at Lamplight Lounge, one of the nicest restaurants in the park, which I hadn't been to ever. When the rest of the group decided they also wanted to dry dinner there I changed the reservation as early in the day as I could, but there were no guarantees that we would get in at that time. We waited for probably 30-45 minutes and just as we were all getting tired and cranky, we got some Disney magic in the form of an offer to eat in the super special secret private dining room downstairs called "the office." You have to go through this vault door to get it - our waiter let the kids turn the crank and it was all very exciting!

 Oh, and did I mention it had it's own private balcony on the water?

The theme of the space was an ode to Pixar animators, and we loved looking at all of the self portraits. There was even a cupboard full of board games to play while you wait. Afterwards we walked straight over to our FastPass for World of Color and watched the show - it was so fun!

The third day was truly a blur - I think our goal was to do everything that we hadn't already gotten to in both parks - and the Downtown Disney area. We took a little break from the parks so we could go see the decorations in the Grand Californian Hotel, like the tree and the fireplace and the giant gingerbread hotel. 

We also found a great last minute spot to watch the "Christmas Fantasy Parade." Then we did a good bit of evening exploring. Disneyland after dark is possibly more magical than in daylight. 

Look at this precious window display on Main Street. 

 This was our last day - we wore our matching MatterHomies shirts and made an effort to use all of the PhotoPass opportunities available.

 In a surprising turn of events we had to trade our jeans and jackets for shorts because it topped out at 96 degrees that day!

 This is for sure the BEST picture of the trip!

Or maybe THIS was the best picture... more Disney Magic. As we were kind of rest and waiting outside of the restroom as we were about to leave, a Cast Member asked us if we would like to meet Mickey... of course! In a minute Mickey walked out, grabbed hands Whit and Carolina's hands and walked the kids down the street a ways where they could hug him and of course get good pictures! It was precious.

DCA's tree - so so pretty. 

After four very full days, this little one was done, she partied hard. 

Goodnight, Disneyland. 

Before our flight we had just enough time to do some final souvenir and Christmas shopping and wandering in Downtown Disney.

Four days was just right, I mean we always feel like we could stay longer, and there are always things that we have to say "we'll just have to do it next time" about - but we really felt like we could enjoy our time and not worry about rushing quite so much. It was a wonderful family vacation!