Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  It is taking me several days to finish blogging about our busy December!  This month's blog takes up a couple pages!  I still need to write about our wonderful visits in L.A. and Santa Barbara.  For now I am going to finish with our Disneyland pictures below.  Our Disneyland experience was a ton of fun!  Sadly we were missing 3 family members because of work (Dad, Teri, & Joe).  We stayed at the Disneyland hotel for 3 nights, and spent two days "hopping" back and forth between Disneyland and Disney California.  On top of that, we had a "Character Breakfast" where the girls got to meet several princesses, and Tricia & Michael had a romantic dinner at "Blue Bayou", which is the restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean.  Check out pictures below!  And I will try to finish "December" later this week.  :) 

Disneyland

Amazing Disneyland Hotel headboard-when the lights are off the fireworks and music come on.  See picture below of headboard fireworks.

This is the view from our Disneyland hotel room-we could see all of Downtown Disney.  At night we had a great view of the Disneyland fireworks.

 

Tricia & Michael Get Married!

Tricia & Michael's wedding was one to remember!  It was touching, beautiful, and had a fun assortment of little and not so little glitches.  Beautiful Moment #1) Mom, Teri, Tricia, Amber, Abby, & myself spent a fun day relaxing, eating, listening to music, & getting primped at the Arizona Inn, where the ceremony and reception were held.  Glitch #1) Tracy's hair + hairstylist do not mix!  Luckily there was enough time for a "redo".  Beautiful Moment #2) Tricia & Michael had an outdoor ceremony planned, and we all woke up to a sunshiney day. Glitch #2) It rains! Then it stops! Then it rains again! Then it stops!  It rained off and on to the last minute, and then decided to stop right on time for the ceremony, and began pouring 20 minutes after the ceremony ended.  Luckily the reception was indoors. Beautiful Moment #3) The photographer was the same photographer from Tracy & James's wedding, and he is amazing!  He got lots of great outdoor shots between rain showers.  Then the flowers arrived, which leads us to...Glitch #3)  A look of big disappointment registered on Tricia's face when she saw all the bouquets.  None of them looked the way she ordered them.  So Sarah and I went to the reception area to see how that was coming along, where we found a grumpy florist who was setting up the room with the wrong color flowers & had misspelled names on the place cards.  Sarah & I helped take away all the wrong color flowers, but grumpy florist stormed off and left the hotel.  Beautiful Moment #4)  The look on Tricia's face was one of complete happiness and love during the ceremony, as was Michael's.  Tricia was stunningly beautiful.  The Minister asked them to kiss, and pronounced them man & wife.  Glitch #4)  Oops!!!  The Minister forgot the whole part about exchanging rings!!!  We had to remind him, so the ceremony had a "Part II".  

The rest of the night, luckily, had no more glitches.  The night was topped off with all the guests going outside and making a sparkler tunnel which the happy couple ran through. 

Tricia's Wedding, December 18th

Pre Wedding Photos

Amber & Abby hanging out in the hotel waiting to be primped

Abby

Gorgeous Teri!  This is her the day before the wedding, she was a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding @ the same hotel Tricia & Michael got married at.

Shots from the rehearsal dinner

Tricia's Bridal Shower

Here is a picture from Tricia's Bridal Shower.  Her wonderful friend Laura, on the left, helped me put it together.  Great food +Great friends+Great Decor+ Fun Games+Gifts=Success!!! 

Friends dressed in toilet paper wedding dresses is always a good time.  We had yummy punch, Mama Llama empanadas, quiche, & heaps of "puppy chow" (a favorite snack of  Tricia's which is Chex mix covered in chocolate & powdered sugar).

Other than the seriously malfunctioning chocolate fountain, everything was fabulous.

Chilly December Days

 In December we had some freezing temperature mornings & nights.  We got to break in our fireplace.  Cali loves warm things, so she was in front of the fire within moments of us lighting it.

This looks much better in real life, but here is a picture of it anyway.  It is the golf course that surrounds our apartments.  On really cold mornings all the grass freezes.  I took this one morning on the way to work. Below are a couple shots from the entrance to our apartments.