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Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | First Magic Moments LO

I am so thankful that I started writing some of my memories down about this trip on the blog, because I think there is a lot I could have missed! I’m so thankful to not forget these stories! I didn’t write everything down, so from now on this album might not be as detailed, but I hope to get my families’ memories down too! I am happy that I made a trip planner and that I can use it, my photos, and all the memories my family can remember to get the journaling down. This trip was so magical that I just am so excited to be finally scrapping it! It’s so important to write down your memories and I am happy that I am starting to scrapbook again and hopefully get many pages done so that my family legacy can be remembered! I feel bad that I am so behind on all my albums, but I have to start where I am now!

I used the Project Mouse Collection by Britt-ish Designs & Sahlin Studio

I’m so excited to share my family’s magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE

Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | First Magic Moments

FIRST MAGIC MOMENTS

December 6, 2014

After revealing the secret, we all just couldn’t wait to get to the hotel. Our shuttle FINALLY arrived and we loaded our bags and ourselves and began our journey. At this point we let the kids know that not only were we going to Disneyland, but we were actually going to be staying in the DISNEYLAND HOTEL! Ahhh!

The shuttle driver kept us entertained with Disney music as we drove from Long Beach to Anaheim. Before we knew it, we were pulling up in front of the Disneyland Hotel. We grabbed our bags and excitedly walked in. The kids immediately gravitated to the cute teacup seats. At the front desk, Joey and I got checked in, amidst a little complication with our credit card (the transaction got flagged, since we don’t take a whole lot of trips – but after some calls we got it figured out. The Cast Members at the front desk were really great and helped us get it all figured out).

We were able to get a standard room in the Adventure Tower. It was on the Downtown Disney side, but only the 2nd floor, so our view was trees – but actually I loved it! So easy and fast to get to our room from Downtown Disney and the trees kind of blocked the noise. It was awesome! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Disneyland Hotel rooms. We all loved looking for the Hidden Mickeys and of course the headboard is AMAZING! It was just awesome.

After checking out the room and settling in a bit, we decided it was time to explore! Everyone was hungry and I also wanted to go redeem my voucher for the Annual Pass and also pick up our Photopass+ Card. (We had decided to get one Annual Pass so that we could get the discounts and such.) So we headed towards Downtown Disney. Joey and the kids grabbed some lunch at Earl of Sandwich and I headed down to the Esplanade. I redeemed my voucher, got my picture taken, and got my new Annual Pass. California Adventure looked less busy, so I went through the gates and headed to the photo shop where I redeemed the voucher to get our Photopass+ card. This all took about an hour and then I met up with my family at Downtown Disney, where we did some exploring in the stores. We were all fascinated with the Lego Store and all of its awesome characters! The Build-a-Bear Store was amazing too and the kids were definitely starting their lists!

After lots of browsing, we went to Tortilla Joe’s for dinner! We LOVED it – it was so good, and we especially loved the guacamole, made for us right at our table!

After dinner, we strolled over to the AMC Theaters to watch BIG HERO 6. We were AMAZED by this theater. It was HUGE. It was definitely the biggest theater we’ve ever been to. Plus amazingly there wasn’t a whole lot of people taking advantage of it and so in the huge theater, it felt like we were the only ones there. We LOVED Big Hero 6 – it was such a cute movie. After the movie, we had to take advantage of a photo-op!

After the movie, we headed back to the hotel and we had a little bit of a Christmas Celebration, complete with a little Mickey Tree, Treats, and gifts. These were things I brought from home to bring some Christmas to our room. The kids loved it all, especially the Disney gift cards from Dad and Mom and the money from Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

At this point, we were just so exhausted. It had been a very long, but thrilling and exciting day! We couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

The Adventure Continues in another post…

jollyholidayheader I’m so excited to share my family’s magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE.

Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | The Surprise – Part 1

THE SURPRISE – Part 1

December 6, 2014

** I have been so excited about this trip that of course I had been packed for weeks. But the night before the trip, we attended my niece’s birthday party and then came home and had the kids go to bed early! And then final preparations were made by Joey and I, including getting the bags in the car and the “treasures” hidden and such. We were so excited that I don’t think we really got any sleep! Let the Adventure begin…

We woke the kids up at 6:00 am with a “Merry Christmas!” They were so confused but we told them to go get in the shower and get dressed. They were not too enthused about getting up so early on a Saturday morning. They got ready and sleepily arrived in the living room to this:

That actually woke them up pretty good! Presents under the tree! But we had them eat some breakfast, before we got started.

Every year it has been our December tradition to have a daily activity. For years we have used an advent calendar that I created out of a over-the-door shoe organizer. (It has 24 slots, perfect for our daily activities to go in the pockets). But this year, I got a great Black Friday deal at Deseret Book and purchased a new Shadowbox Advent Calendar that I have been eyeing for a couple of years:

So we had the kids sit down on the couch and we pulled out the note that was in the “6” Box. Our note said: “Grimoires of Grand Adventure” (Joey had been giving the kids some vocabulary words in the previous week, so they would understand some of our messages.)

We then instructed the kids to take the gifts out from under the tree and untie the bow. We made sure that they wouldn’t uncover the brown paper over the cover of the storybooks. I decided that I wanted to film each time we read a part of the books, so I filmed while Joey read to the kids and they followed along. Joey and I were both pretty emotional as we were actually starting off on this grand adventure that we had been planning for so long. The second page of the book instructed the kids to go on a treasure hunt.

Our video of the reading of this first part of our Storybook:

JJ and Beth excitingly took their books (which had pictures of where the treasures were) and headed out.

The kids gathered wrapped gifts, gold coins, and slips of paper with messages on them. They were having a great time collecting everything and when they got to the end of the hunt, they piled all of their treasures into the living room. Joey and I happily watched them as they opened the gifts of games, coloring books, activity books, crayons, treats, and more.

We then had them take the slips of paper to the table and try and put them in the right order. After a little while (and some help), they were able to do it:

Then we read the final page of Part 1 in the Storybook:

After reading the page, it took a bit of prompting to help the kids figure out what they needed to do. In the treasure hunt, one of the wrapped gifts included a special decoder that Joey had one of his friends make. (Joey had 4 made so we all have one so we can send each other coded messages and stuff. It’s so awesome!) To figure out how to use the decoder the kids had to use the message on the slips of paper above. The answer was 13. So they had to set their decoder to the number 13 and then they could decipher the message on the left side of the page.

Once they found the cipher they went right to work decoding the message!

And the message turned out to be:

Take the things you found and get in the car.

So we helped the kids get all their stuff into their backpacks and we put on our coats….

The Adventure Continues in another post…

jollyholidayheader I’m so excited to share my family’s magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE.

Life 365 | Week 52

Monday, December 20, 2010

Joey came home in the middle of the day with an amazing surprise! He received one of his company’s employee awards this year! And what did he receive – AN IPAD! And not just any iPad – the best one that they have out right now. WOW! He was so excited and I’m just so proud of him. He totally deserves it. It is so fun to see him enjoying it!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

It snowed again – and it was the best snowman-making snow – so of course we had to get out in it today! It’s fun having the kids home during the day. We made our Frosty and made snow angels and had a snowball fight and just had so much fun. Unfortunately, it got warmer later in the day, and some of the snow melted away, along with our Frosty. I was so glad we didn’t delay in getting out there and playing!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Today’s activity was to read and watch the movie of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! So in between playing and cleaning, we read the book and before bedtime we had it done, so we got to watch the movie! It was so fun!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

We did laundry and cleaning today and the kids got to play games on Joey’s little computer. They loved it!

Friday, December 24, 2010

What an amazing day today. Joey completely surprised me this year – many times he is quite the grinch around Christmas – but this season, he has been so wonderful. I think its because as a family, we have really focused on teaching the kids the real meaning of Christmas – we have been reading scriptures every night and the kids have really responded to Jesus and the Christmas story. Joey went shopping and came home with Uncle Aaron and a whole list of fun things to do today. I did some cooking so that all I had to do was stick the potatoes in for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner and did some last minute cleaning. I also made up a batch of swirl cookies for Santa. We played games, and did puzzles, and watched movies, and read books and just spent the whole day together. We were glad to have Aaron join us. We also took the Trax up to temple square and saw the lights and the wonderful nativity scene they had there. There was such a wonderful spirit on the temple grounds and it was so fun being there on Christmas Eve. On the way home, we picked up Chinese food from our favorite place – Mings Garden – and then we came home and ate it. We opened our new pajamas and got a picture of us in them before bedtime.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

It was a fabulous Christmas! The kids had so much fun. From Santa, JJ got Buzz and Beth got a Rapunzel doll. And they also received from us – Jessie, Woody, and Bulls-eye, lots of games, movies, and other fun things and we just spent the whole day playing. The Toy Story movies have meant a lot to me and the kids so it was so fun to see Beth and JJ play with their new Toy Story characters! Joey surprised us all with the Wii Sports Resort Game and he gave me the Wii Fit Plus – which I have wanted for a long time! It was a great day!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

It’s just so much fun to have new things to play with! It was a relaxing day – just spent at church and together.

Life 365 | Week 50

Monday, December 6, 2010

We made it safely home from our vacation and the kids got to skip school again, but Dad had to go back to work. When it got dark, we drove over to the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights! It was a neat drive through lots of fun lights – the kids loved it!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The kids purchased some gifts for each other at the school’s Christmas shop and they were so excited to wrap them up for each other today.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Our project today was some fun Christmas pins. They were a little harder than I thought they would be – just because the beads were so small, but the kids helped where they could! We are going to give them away with some of our friend treats.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

We started our baking and treat-making today. First up, we made these adorable marshmallow snowmen. The kids loved attaching the M&Ms and Pretzels.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Joey had his podcast tonight, but the kids and I headed over to our ward Christmas party. It was good food. Then after the kids went to bed, I spent a long time working on getting treats made.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

We surprised the kids with an outing to “Breakfast with Santa” at Thanksgiving Point. We got to eat breakfast, sing carols with Buddy the Elf and Mrs. Claus, talk to Santa, and lots of fun crafts and activities. The kids had a great time, even though JJ wouldn’t go see Santa. But they both loved sitting in the fireplace where Santa came out! In the afternoon, we went and saw “Tangled” which was so cute and we all loved it. And then in the evening, we headed up to Salt Lake City for the annual Homestarmy Christmas Party. This year we went to Pete’s house and there was lots of good food, visiting, and watching The Muppet’s Christmas Carol.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Dancing to Christmas music is always so much fun! It was so cute to watch the kids do some dancing together tonight.

Project 365 | Week 51

Monday, December 14, 2009

Today was wrapping day. Most of my shopping was done today and we began wrapping presents. I have started a little tradition with wrapping that my mom did with my brothers (after I was married and gone from home). She would pick a wrapping paper for each child and then would wrap all their gifts in that paper and then she wouldn’t have to do any to/from labels/writing/tags. I thought it was really fun and so last year was the first year I did it and I’m continuing it this year! The kids like it too!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

I have new visiting teachers and they came over to visit this morning. It was really wonderful to sit and visit with these wonderful women and just share a little bit of our lives with each other. They brought their children with them and Beth got to spend a few minutes playing with 3 girls about her age. She was in heaven! They left us with some yummy cinnamon rolls!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

I mailed the majority of my Christmas Cards today! I have done Christmas Cards every year since Joey and I have been married. It’s a wonderful tradition and I’m always so happy to have them done! I did about 80 cards this year and just need a few more addresses before I send the final ones out. I was so excited about how my cards turned out this year. The pictures that Maria took for us were amazing and I feel so blessed to have been able to get such great photos of my family! Along with getting the cards mailed out, I finished my Christmas/Grocery shopping today as well and it felt very good to have that all done.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Today was baking day. I did a little bit of treat making yesterday, but the majority was done today. This was my counter full of supplies before I started cooking. I made Peanut Clusters, Turtle Pretzels, and some Cake (Tree) Pops.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Today was Christmas Parties at both JJ and Beth’s schools. We packaged up our treats to give out to neighbors/friends and teachers as well. The kids both had a wonderful time at their parties and came home very excited and loaded with some fun treats/treasures.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

We got up early to finish up projects today. I started with running to the post office to pick up a package and then I spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping some gifts, making cookie layer bars, oreo pie and Red Velvet Cookies for our Christmas party tonight. We left home at about 5pm and headed to Salt Lake City where we walked in the cold to Temple Square to see the beautiful lights. It was pretty cold and we didn’t stay too long, catching the trax to get back to our car. Then we headed to Centerville for our Friend Christmas Party. It was so great being with our friends and eating great food and visiting. The kids were SO SO good and they just played downstairs with the other kids and let us visit. It was a very good time!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Today was our Christmas program at church and I had the opportunity to sing in the Ward Choir. Christmas music is so wonderful and it was a great experience to be a part of that today. After church it was a nice Sunday with just being together, having a nap, and continuing our tradition of our Family Movie Night. Tonight we watched The Muppets Christmas Carol – one of our family’s favorite movie traditions at Christmas. A great way to end the week!

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