I have hundreds of photos from the trip.  As I said, I'm going to post it bit by bit.  First coming up in a minute will be a post about the rides and trip overall.  Later this weekend (hopefully) I will post smaller entries about the details.

If you want a preview cause you just can't wait to see it all, here's a link to our photo album.

We're back! We had a magical, merry trip to Disneyland Resort this week.

It was a slam dunk fantastic vacation! We got to do everything we wanted at least once, and often twice. We ate churros every day. We stayed at my dream hotel, the Grand Californian, right in the park.

I have so much to share and journal, with over 300 photos - not counting any from Ben. I'll probably post in pieces.

For now, I'll share our first and last photos in the parks.

We enjoyed a quiet day at home for Ben's birthday.  He opened presents after breakfast per tradition.

For lunch we all went to the Westminster Alamo to see Spies in Disguise.  You know what, that movie was actually really good!  I mean, for a kids film.  I don't blindly recommend it.  But the animation was smart, it had great voice acting, the plot was predictable but tight, and had a lot of great jokes and fun set pieces.

Ben indulged in a hearty root stew for dinner.  He made it with dashi and miso, ingredients that the other humans in our house don't light.  The cats on the other hand...

Then we had ice cream cake from DQ and played card games.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

We had the pleasure of hosting Christmas for the Waterhouse family this year.  It was so fun having everyone come to Denver to celebrate.  Here's a smattering of pictures from the end of the year.  Sorry, they are totally out of order!

A picture of Freddy in the Thai Dinner box was turned into this glorious ode to a meme.

Merry Christmas!

Okay, it's actually Tuesday.

Either way, Freddy was Garfielding hard for this lasagne.

(I have a cold this week. Please don't judge me for serving Stouffer's.)

Earlier this month I got to come into Sam's class and teach the whole first grade about Christmas in Germany, as part of their "Holidays Around the World" unit.  I did this for Jack's class when he was in first grade, you can see the pictures from that here.

This time I didn't document nearly as well, so all I have is this picture that the teacher took.  Sam is the one picking his nose.

I brought in most of the same things - clothes, pictures, decorations, and a slide show with pictures and facts.

Then I served some German treats, this time I made stollen and lebkuchen.  A lot of the kids loved it and asked for seconds and thirds!

Like last time, I had the kids make a special message for my German pen pal:

Steffi and I have been excitedly emailing all month about the busy-ness of being a mom during Christmastime.   Her kids loved the video, and in return she sent a few back.  I stitched them together into one movie and added subtitles.

Tomorrow the teachers are going to share it with the first graders, to show that their message went all the way around the world!

It's been a Christmas-sy weekend!  Friday the kids were off school except for a brief scheduled assessment.  So it was a lazy kind of day.  In the evening Jack brought a friend to the ward Christmas party.  It was nice to get out and chat with people and enjoy some Christmas music.  They had a few small instrumental performances and had the kids sing "Stars Were Gleaming" - much to Jack's embarrassment, since his friend got to watch him sing.  :-)

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Today we decided to take an adventure downtown for some Christmas cheer.  For extra fun, we took the light rail train.  It was a dreary gray day, but I mostly stayed warm.

Visited the Giving Machine at Writer Square.  

Sam and Ben bought some fancy cheese from an Irish cheesemonger selling Dutch wares at the German market.

All testing the cheese in the Christkindlmarkt Festival Hall.  

I was very tempted to buy all the wurst and potatoes in a variety of forms at the Christkindlmarkt, but it was SOOOO crowded and the lines long.  Instead we went to Mellow Mushroom for a warm meal indoors.  (Notice Sam is piling on the parm while our photo is taken)

I impressed/embarrassed my family with my wealth knowledge for lyrics from radio hits of 1998 and 1998, which seemed to make up the restaurant's playlist.  Here I'm serenading the boys with a Britney Spears ballad. 

There was a pop-up market in Larimer Square.  Mostly fancy-pants boutique wares.  Jack and I ducked into the festival tent and found an a cappella group singing a Disney medley.  They were really good!

Home again on the train.  Sam tried to play it cool, riding backwards away from us.  But he came back after one stop to share a bench and play Farkle on Ben's phone. 

Not pictured, they each picked out treat at Rocket Fizz. Sam took a sour apple Blow-Pop, Jack took a Chocolate Frog.

I spent in the afternoon in a bustle getting groceries and picking up Christmas cards and a popcorn tin.  Then I baked cupcakes for my Sunday school class and did laundry while watching Nutcracker.  We had a lovely brief snow, but no build-up on the ground.  To finish the evening we watched Home Alone 2.  The kids were howling with laughter and declared it just as good as the original.