magical christmas eve

christmas eve at the house of wan was relatively low-key.  i was pretty happy to see that the weather forecast from earlier in the week was off by about 10 degrees - i didn't really want to have a repeat of the 80-degree weather we had over thanksgiving.

with the ILs in town for the holidays, we kind of just relaxed for most of the day.  we did make our way out to pick stuff up to make christmas dinner, and on our way back stopped for a quick treat.

back at home, the bean found that pixie had left one last gift:  magic reindeer food, meant to be sprinkled in the yard to lure santa's ride to our house to leave lots of presents.

after the bean tossed out a handful, she passed the bucket over to me, the teen, and MIL to take a turn.

what's christmas eve without a tall glass of horchata and some delicious mexican grub?

after dinner, we headed over to church to take in a special christmas eve service.

the bean decided to put out two brownie bites, a cookie and a glass of water for santa.  she was afraid he'd get tired of drinking milk at every other house and figured some agua would be a refreshing change.

then we changed into our special christmas pajamas, snapped a selfie, and then it was off to bed for her so that santa could make his way to our house and get 'er done.

because we'd had so much downtime during the day, i managed to get most of the gift wrapping done before dinner.  it was really nice to be able to just place all of the presents under the tree and be asleep before midnight.  such a difference from - oh, pretty much every other year.  heh.

merry christmas to all, and to all a good night!

mommy & me at the barre

when a winter break edition of "mommy & me at the barre" was announced, i snagged a spot for me and the bean as soon as i could.  i'm not entirely sure she loved it all that much the first time we went, but it sounded like a fun way to hang out together and get some exercise in at the same time.

because the class was booked solid, we made sure to get there a little early.

and as she does at every open space she finds herself in, she practiced her cartwheels.

she showed me some of the stretches they do in her jazz dance class.  too bad my days of doing the splits are looooong gone.

when it was time to start, we did our warmup in a big circle.  it was fun to watch the bean and the rest of the littles do jumping jacks and gallop first to the right, and then to the left.  there was lots of giggling, and it was contagious.  and then we all moved to the barre for some real work.

she thought it was fun to do the arm work with a set of 1-pound weights.

at some point, she looked over at me and said "wow, you get sweaty from this?  hahahahahahahaha!" oh, you little shit.

during our foldover series, the girls had a little fun.  as the moms did the work, they got to crawl underneath the line of legs lifted in the air, and the giggling continued.

someone managed to get video, which was posted on the studio's instagram account.  sorry it's so big, but i don't know how to fix html code.

then it was time for some floor work on the mat - her favorite part.

a little downward dog to start:

some ab work while rolling like a ball:

then they got to help out their moms by holding down their feet for some crunches.

a little bridge work with our feet on the wall:

and finally, some stretching to end the class.  she's a bit more flexible than i am.

all done!

they got to work on a cute little craft while the moms hung out and chatted - and snapped pictures.

we herded all the cats for a group photo.

and then on the way out, grabbed a plate of delicious snacks.

cookies, goldfish and chocolate milk.  i mean...is there any better recovery food than that?

merry grinchmas to us

we totally cheated on the mouse, as my friend ali would say, when we went to universal studios to experience "grinchmas."  the teen has been wanting to go to this every year, and we're usually too cheap to buy tickets for yet another theme park.  but since we have those handy dandy annual passes this time, we finally got to go and check it out.  their blackout dates for annual passholders are super weird, and somehow the saturday before christmas was open for us.  yay!

of course, this meant that the park was fairly busy.  and parkgoers here are a little different from those we encounter at disneyland - they're not as merry and some are downright rude and pushy.  we just have to psych ourselves up for it, but we always forget until it's too late and we're irritable from the unfriendliness.  oh, well.

since it was already late afternoon, we decided to go through the tram ride first.  there really wasn't much different here than on regular days, although the whoville set was extra festive and there was a little stage show with singers, dancers, and the grinch.

i always find it funny to find this set right behind whoville.

when we got off the tram, we headed towards the lower lot - a section we hadn't visited yet since getting our passes.  mostly because we already know that the rides there (jurassic park, the mummy and transformers) are of little interest to the bean.  she watched the 84-foot drop at the end of the jurassic park ride, which solidified her decision to not ride it, like ever.

while we were there, we found a fun photo op:

the teen's favorite movie car was down there too.

back upstairs on the main lot, we waited just 20 minutes for the simpsons ride.

the center of the park was where the majority of the grinchmas activities could be found.

 we managed to arrive for one of several christmas tree lighting ceremonies.

 the girls decided to color some ornaments.

we were visited by a stilts-wearing whovian.

and on my way back from a potty break, i ran into the grinch again.

we saved our favorite ride for last, and strolled through the london set on the way there.

i mean, who doesn't love the minions?

i'll tell you this much - grinchmas is way better than halloween horror nights.  WAY.