yup, still celebrating it

eleven years ago right this very moment, he asked and i said yes.

life has been immensely wonderful ever since. 

still love him just as much as at that moment. maybe even more.

happy engageaversary to my beloved!

prepping for christmas

the days leading up to christmas were a whirlwind of activity.  not only did we have all sorts of stuff to accomplish, but i had the bean underfoot the whole time since she was on winter break.  i felt bad because i spent a good chunk of time sitting at the sewing machines to finish up a bunch of those mermaid tail blankets, leaving her to entertain herself.  luckily she's at an age where that isn't all that hard to do, but still.  and when i was finally done, i'd filled this entire tub with blankets:

i spread them all out so that i could see all of the labels of who they belonged to and started folding them into tissue to pack them for shipping.

and i managed to add a few tweaks to the pattern to make sharks, turning to one of my favorite models to get this picture:

this is the one and only mermaid tail i made with printed fleece.

oh - also?  don't wait till the week of christmas to decide that the whole family needs matching pajamas.  the pickins were slim, but the old lady and i managed to scrounge up a bunch of semi-matching t-shirts and found pajama pants on sale at old navy for $5 apiece.  there were none left in kids' sizes though, so we picked up the smallest pair we could find and brought them home for me to alter.  a little snip snip here and a bit of sewing there, and i managed to get 'er done.

i busted out the die cutting machine to jazz up our plain red tops a bit, too.

aaaaand pixie spent her last few days of 2015 doing some rather boring, uninspired things.

and everyone (sans the hub, who was happily out running errands) had to hug her goodbye.

 even mollydog.

her face kinda says it all, amirite?

a blur of a christmas party

a few weeks ago, the hub threw out the idea of inviting some friends over to have a christmas party at our house.  it's been a long time since we did any entertaining here, so we went over the calendar and picked out a date.

and then i promptly forgot about actually telling anyone until it was just a couple of weeks away.  heh.  luckily, i had at least a couple of friends who could still make it despite the close proximity to christmas.  the hub, on the other hand, was expecting like 20 people that he'd invited.  oh well.

we put a lot of effort into getting the house up to the hub's standards, and with our menu all set and food bought and prepped, we were ready to party.  i managed to get a few pictures of the calm before the storm, although i suppose the kitchen was kind of a disaster.  isn't it always, when you throw a party?  the prime rib roasts were all ready, sweet potato and green bean casseroles were standing by, all we needed was a slew of guests to come and eat it all up.

with just a few kids coming, i found "big hero 6" on the movie channel and just left it on.

we figured that we could set up all the food on the buffet and then squeeze as many people around the table as would fit.

the christmas tree is in the office this year.  kinda weird, but with the couch taking up most of the space in the living room, it was pretty much our only option.

and the giant cookie cutter is in the entryway, adorned with some of the many holiday cards we've received.

as our guests began to trickle in, i found myself far too busy to take pictures.  bummer.  i didn't pick up my phone again until much later, when i walked into the bean's room and found...this.

i should say, though, that the kids and their parents scrambled to clean it up before they left, despite us telling them not to worry about it.  hell, that's the most action most of those toys have seen in ages.  in any case, the room was back to normal by the time the last guest had left.

i did manage to get this group shot, courtesy of the hub:

and then i snapped this one.

it was a lovely party, and a nice way to see a bunch of friends just before the holidays.  it's amazing to me how fast it all goes by.

happy christmas to all

we hope yours is merry and bright!

happiest photo shoot EVER

now that our christmas cards are out, i can share a few snaps from the 2015 wan family photo shoot.  and since our photographer adores disneyland as much as we do (well, most of us, anyway), it was a no-brainer as to this year's location.

we started, of course, at the castle.  it happened to be one of the "mickey's not so scary halloween party" days, hence the red wristbands you can see if you look close enough.  also, it was extra crowded and i was grateful that she knew where and how to position us to minimize the photobombers.

you'll notice that we all have disneyland shirts on...which were purchased at the world of disney shop in downtown disney about ten minutes before we started the shoot.  heh.

here's the only decent shot we got of just me and the hub - with a welcome photobomber who just happened to be walking by.  the look on my husband's face makes me crack up every time i look at this.

i actually don't like the teacups ride.  like, at all.  i'm not into spinny rides and always feel like i'm gonna hurl, so i made sure to tell the girls NOT to pick the purple teacup, which is rumored to be the one that spins the fastest.  and when they wanted to ride it again, the rest of us tapped out, but that got us a really cute shot of the two of them.

we had to sneak these at the main street railroad station, right as we got off the train and waited for everyone to pass us.

and if you can stand it for just a few seconds more, here are the last two favorites of mine:

next year, we promise to get a little more creative with our location.  maybe.

squeezing one last trip in for the year

with the bean all done with school for 2015, we decided to take advantage of an extra bonus day of winter break by heading down to disneyland for the last time this year.  it was also the very last day that her pass was valid - we're now in the holiday blackout period and won't be able to go again until the first weekend of january.

we arrived bright and early and spied the new metal detectors at the security checkpoint.  rumor has it that they're randomly selecting people, and i've also heard that they're having every 7th guest go through.  this makes no sense to me, unless for some reason they have to pay per use or something.  if they feel the need to have the damn things, why not send everyone through?  anyone know the reasoning behind this?  because i don't get it.

since we've gone to the disneyland side on our last few visits, we decided to head to california adventure for the day.  not to mention that i figured it would be a little less crowded over there, which would make for a really enjoyable day.

as we went through the gate, we were handed a couple of these, commemorating opening day of the new star wars movie.

(too bad i managed to lose one of them somewhere along the way.  oh well.)

we made a beeline for cars land, hoping to get onto the radiator springs racers ride.  since the fastpass line was open (which is rare, since it's a super popular ride and passes "sell" out quickly), we stopped in and grabbed a couple to ensure that we'd get on the ride at least once.  the park had only been open for about 15 minutes and our return time was already at 10:35.

with zero line to say hello to mater, we stopped for a quick photo op.

and then we headed over to the ride to see how long the wait was.  15 minutes?  another very rare sight for us.

it was pretty accurate, and we were seated in practically no time at all.

we could easily have gone back for another ride right away, but decided to head out and see what else we could do with little to no wait.  as we made our way out towards the pier, the bean said "i've always wanted to do this" and stopped here:

silly.

at the very back of the park, we scored yet again as the line for "toy story mania" was about as short as it ever gets.

next up was a turn on mickey's fun wheel - the non-swinging gondola, of course.  the swinging ones make me really queasy.

it was a beautiful day, and it was nice to take in the view from up high.

the silly symphony swings are a favorite of the bean's, but not for me.  i sat this one out and settled for watching her spin around with a look of pure joy.

another favorite ride for both of us is goofy's sky school.  i always think of the old lady when we ride this - back when the park first opened, it was called "mulholland madness" and it used to freak her out like crazy (although she rode it every time).

since we wanted to get in for one of the performances of the "aladdin" stage show, we took the short cut through a bug's land and stopped for another fun photo op.

after a 13-year run, the show is coming to an end and being replaced with a "frozen"-themed production.  since that announcement, "aladdin" has been even more popular than before and they've had to use the fastpass system for seating.  without one, there's a good chance that your party will be split up or won't get in at all.

with our passes securely in my bag (which is also when i think i lost that pin, d-oh), we made another pitstop to say hello to another friend.  he looked about as happy to see us as we were to see him.

by that time, our fastpasses were valid for our second "racers" ride.  look at how long the standby wait was, just two hours later!

and this time, i got her to put her hands up for the picture.

we had just enough time to grab a quick snack and head back to the hyperion theater to watch our show.

somehow, we managed to score seats in the orchestra section, right on the floor.  it was a nice way to relax and enjoy what was probably the very last time we'd ever see it.

it really is a fantastic show, and i'm going to miss it a lot.  as popular as it still is, i wish they hadn't decided to shut it down.  we've seen it so many times over the years, but it's never exactly the same.  the genie always manages to throw in tons of jokes and current pop culture references, and it never disappoints.  so bummed.

from there, we stopped and grabbed some lunch - one of their giant smoked turkey legs that i swear is laced with some sort of crack, and supplemented it with a side of mac & cheese that the bean devoured.  then we headed over to another of her very favorite spots in the park, the animation academy.  we got to draw a few characters from "phineas and ferb," and then it was time to head out. one last tram selfie:

traffic was pretty gnarly, with our usual half hour drive home doubled.  and then it was a mad dash to get ready for the rest of our evening - we still had the usual friday hula class and girl scouts meeting.

see you in 2016, disneyland!