best disneyland day ever

christmas at disneyland rocks.  even when it's not quite thanksgiving yet (which came late this year, so that's okay, right?).  the teen and i have given up being scrooges about celebrating christmas too early - the season always goes by so fast, and so we've learned to just embrace it somewhere around mid-november.

coincidentally, that's exactly when disneyland decides to start the holiday cheer and start putting up all of their elaborate decorations.  this is actually awesome for many reasons, but one being that we can go in and enjoy all of it before the crowds get too intense.  and so last weekend, we decided to do just that.  with the teen driving, i enjoyed the ride down to anaheim armed with all of the most important things for the day:

i never really understand how disneyland decides to handle parking.  sometimes the entrance to the massive structure is blocked, and we're stuck having to park at one of the other lots and take a bus to the entrance.  this time, as we entered the structure, we were directed to drive back outside of it and park in a completely different lot that i've never been in before.

the one thing that we really wanted to do when we got there was to get in line to meet baymax, from "big hero 6."  he's doing meet & greets inside the gift shop near the exit from space mountain, and from a previous visit i knew he was only there for a limited time.  we were meeting up with lilcee and mini cee, and when we got to the line they were standing just a couple of spots ahead of us.  the girls were, as always, excited to see each other.

we could just barely see a glimpse of baymax from where we stood.

a cast member came by to let us know that baymax's "batteries need to be recharged every 30 minutes."  our wait from that point could be up to 75 minutes, and he would come out for half an hour before disappearing through this door for another half hour "recharging."

so basically, it would totally be hit and miss as to whether we'd get to give the marshmallow man a hug or not.  boo.  although i must say, disney has a way of streamlining their process so that even the longest of lines continue to move at a decent pace.  we chatted and took silly pictures as we waited.

the teen remarked "that's probably one of the last pay phones in existence."  heh.  and it offered free calls to important places, such as disney hotels and disney dining.

sadly, this is as close as we got to a picture with baymax.

the girls were somewhat mollified with meeting hiro, though.

lilcee and mini cee had fastpasses to star tours next, and so we decided to check out the holiday activities back in big thunder ranch while they went on their ride.

the bean colored a postcard to be sent to soldiers stationed overseas.

and petted a goat on the way out.

castle selfies are a must, especially when it's all dressed up.

disneyland has a (supposedly) strict rule about no costumes on adults, so we were a little taken aback at the sight of these chicks, posing and snapping tons of pics.  they don't want kids to be confused about who the official characters are - and this was proved when mini cee asked lilcee if she could take a picture with them.

we were surprised that they were allowed into the park dressed like that, although from the looks of their backpacks, maybe they snuck in and changed clothes.  who knows?  people are weird.

after watching "mickey & the magical map" show, we found a great spot in front of small world to sit and watch the christmas parade.

i can't help it - clarabelle's face always looks like boobs to me.

i don't know how she did it, but somehow as we waited for the parade to start, mini cee talked the bean into trying the matterhorn bobsleds ride with her.  my kid doesn't like fast rides, and asked us a bajillion times how fast it was and if there were any big drops, and the teen and i were astonished when she didn't talk herself out of it and got on with us.

i sat behind her and kept one hand on her in an effort to ease her anxiety, and the teen managed to get this awesome shot mid-scream:

afterwards, she was out of breath but smiling.  "that was...AWESOME!"  yup, kid, you got that right.

she and mini cee talked the teen into riding the rockets with them after that.

o christmas tree, o christmas tree...

then we headed over into california adventure so that she could experience the wonder that is the bacon mac & cheese cone.

sunset in cars land is glorious.

our last activity with mini cee was at the animation academy, where we got to draw baymax.

after we parted ways, we found zero line for santa.  i mean, why not?

back on the disneyland side for the fireworks.

too bad they were canceled due to high winds.  boo.  instead, we convinced the bean into another first:  big thunder railroad.  she screamed her head off and wasn't completely sure she liked it, but she was happy to be sandwiched between me and her sister.

last ride of the night:

i can't wait to go back and take her on matterhorn again.  too much fun.