Before heading home, we went to Disneyland again for some hours.
We rode Matterhorn again. In the pictures below, it looks like Nathan was scared of going on Matterhorn ride. Actually he wasn’t crying about Matterhorn. He started to cry when we didn’t allow him to look at the teacups ride. We told him we will go on teacups ride later but of course he doesn’t understand ‘later’ yet. So other people in line thought Nathan was crying because he was afraid of the Matterhorn ride.
Nelson told me that Nathan enjoyed riding Matterhorn. During and after the ride, we wasn’t crying at all.
Once Nathan got on the teacups ride, boy was he happy!
Of course we didn’t want to leave Disneyland without having pineapple Dole Whip Float!
And we didn’t want to leave without having BBQ ribs and chicken at Big Thunder Ranch!
Nathan was enjoying the entertainment at Big Thunder Ranch
Finally the mouse crawled out of its hole! I have been to Disneyland many times and it is not often I see Mickey Mouse walking around. In this picture, Mickey Mouse was actually walking backwards. 🙂 He was leading a group of band people to Main Street.
We went back to Disneyland Park around 6pm. After showing our family holiday party tickets at the entrance, we got a wristband.
After you walk through the entrance, Disney people passed out candy canes.
Inside the park, the first thing we did was have ice cream at the Gibson Girl shop. Then after ice cream we had popcorn! 🙂 Since we fed Nathan his dinner back in the hotel (our room has a microwave), Nelson and I just felt like having ice cream and popcorn for our dinner.
Popcorn is something we normally don’t buy at Disneyland because they are expensive. Small popcorn usually sells for $3.25 or $3.75. But since it is a family holiday party, the popcorn only cost $1!
Even after ice cream and popcorn, we had corn dogs. We have been going into Disneyland for years and never tried their corn dog. Nelson heard that the Disney corn dog is the best. But I beg to differ. I am not a hot dog or corn dog person. If I will eat a hot dog, I gotta have some rice with it. 🙂 That is the only way I can eat a hot dog is with rice! After taking a few bites of the corn dog, at first I thought it was good. After a few bites more, I wasn’t liking it because it was so oily! So I had to give my corn dog to Nelson. I didn’t want to eat it anymore. Just felt like I was having vegetable oil for dinner.
Before I ate my corn dog, I gave Nathan some snacks. While eating his snacks, he was dozing off again like what he did earlier at Cafe Orleans.
Since the party didn’t officially begin until 8:30pm, we can still go on the rides. In order to get on the rides, we had to show our wristband. The wait time for the rides were between 5 – 10mins. Space Mountain was 10 mins. Buzz Lightyear ride was pretty much no wait at all as well as Pirates of the Caribbean. When it came close to 8pm or 8:30pm, the longest time for a ride was 30mins which is still isn’t a bad wait time. It could have been worst like 1hr wait.
We took advantage of the complimentary photo pass. We had our picture taken at ‘It’s a Small World.’ We got in line for the photo just in time because after we took our photo, the line got very long.
At the holiday party, they had carolers singing Christmas songs in different areas of the park. They also had a lot of photo locations setup so people can take advantage of the complimentary photo pass. Some photo locations included Disney characters like Jack Skellington from ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas.’ There were some light shows too at ‘It’s a Small World’ and Main Street.
Inside ‘It’s a Small World’, a few new things were added due to the holidays.
Here’s the castle all lit up at night for the holidays
Here is the Christmas tree on Main Street. For some reason, I like taking pics of the moon.
Good thing it stopped raining before the family holiday party started!
Today is the Disney/Pixar employee holiday party in Disneyland. The park closes at 6pm for the general public. Then the park will be available for Disney/Pixar employees only.
It’s raining today but it doesn’t stop us from having a good time in Disneyland! Just glad the rain is not heavy and the wind is not strong. We’ve experienced rainy weather before and our worst rainy weather experience has always been at Disney World!
During the day, we didn’t bring the stroller. Nelson carried Nathan or Nathan walked (or ran everywhere) by himself while we were in the park and I carried a backpack with Nathan’s stuff in it. It was actually much easier walking in the park without the stroller because we didn’t have to find a place to park the stroller or we just didn’t have to hassle with it. It was faster for us to get on one ride and onto the next ride without having to move the stroller from one place to another.
Since it’s raining today, there’s a lot less people in the park. We got to ride most of the rides before noon. Good thing most of the rides in Disneyland are indoors like Pirates of Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, etc.
Surprisingly, the longest line I saw was the line for It’s a Small World! I guess since the duration of the ride is kinda long, most people wanted to get out of the rain. Good thing there was hardly a line when we got on it.
Finally, Nathan is tall enough to ride Matterhorn! Height requirement is 35″.
However, the height requirement will change to 42″ sometime next year because the ride will no longer be a two person in one seat. The seating will be changed to one person per seat. So when Disneyland changes the seating for Matterhorn, Nathan will not be able to ride Matterhorn until he reaches 42″! 🙁
I like the baby care center more in Disneyland than in CA Adventure Park. The changing bed at the baby care center in Disneyland is bigger than the one in CA Adventure Park. The baby care center is just bigger overall in Disneyland.
We used the microwave at the baby care center in Disneyland to warm up Nathan’s lunch.
Front area of baby care center
At the baby care center, you can even buy diapers, baby food, baby formula, etc, They have all diaper sizes and it cost $1 each. I didn’t buy any from there since we brought some from home. But some woman bought one for her toddler and she paid $1 for it.
For lunch, we ate at Cafe Orleans. While eating, Nathan was dozing off.
When we go back to Disneyland Park at 6pm, we will bring Nathan’s stroller this time so that he can sleep in it later. The holiday party is until 12:30am. We usually stay out that late in Disneyland anyway.
Before heading back to the park, I covered the stroller with clear plastic bags so it doesn’t get too wet. Nelson told me that the BOB stroller comes with a water-proof cover but it is expensive. I figured why spend money on an expensive cover if I can create my own cover! 🙂 Even Nathan’s diaper bag is covered very well. The diaper bag is hanging at the back part of the stroller.
Today we’re just hanging out at CA Adventure Park.
There is an area where you can take pictures with Santa Claus. Before Nathan had his picture taken with Santa Claus, there was a family in front of us whose daughter was talking to Santa Claus about what she wants for Christmas. When the mom picked up her daughter from Santa Claus, I could have sworn I saw Santa Claus checking out the daughter’s mom’s ASS! I was like ‘what a pervert!’.
Here is Nathan with Santa Claus
Nathan and me on the Heimlich’s ride
Daddy and critter on Francis’s boogie ride
CA Adventure Park has a child care center that has a changing area, nursing area and microwave!! We brought Gerber food that is microwaveable. During lunch, we used the microwave to warm up Nathan’s food which is cheaper than buying him food in the park.
Tonight, we will have dinner at Ariel’s Grotto and watch World of Color.
We are driving to Disneyland today for the Disney Family Holiday Private Party 2011. This family holiday party takes place on Mon Dec 12 and Tues Dec 13. But we will only attend the Monday party. This party is for Disney/Pixar employees. In order to attend the family holiday party, employees must request tickets like in the picture below. Along with the tickets, employees also get a complimentary Disney Photo Pass. Normally, when we enter Disneyland, we avoid all those Disney photographers that take family pictures. With the complimentary Disney Photo Pass, we will be looking for them so we can get our free photo! 🙂
Also, along with the tickets and complimentary photo, employees get an Alice in Wonderland Family Holiday Party ornament.
On Mon Dec 12, the park opens from 8am to 6pm to the public. The official Disney private party begins at 8pm and ends at 12:30am. But the employees can enter the park for the party as early as 4pm. If we go there at 4pm, we need to get some special wristband at the main entrance. After 6pm, the park is only open for those invited to the family holiday party.
We arrived at Anaheim around 12pm to 12:30pm. After checking into our hotel, we ate lunch then went to Company D which is located near Disneyland and sells Disney products at a discount. In order to get into Company D, you have to be a Disney/Pixar employee. From Dec 10, 2011 to Jan 1, 2012, Company D is having an additional 40% off. Most items at Company D are already 50% off. Today, I bought items that were marked 50% off plus additional 40% off. Without the discount, I would have paid close to $50. But with the discount, I only paid $14!! 🙂
Normally when we go to Company D, we would just walk into the store without waiting in line. But because of this special discount, the line outside Company D was long. Surprisingly, the line moved pretty fast. We only had to wait 10 – 15 mins.
For the past several weeks, Nathan has been going to his private speech therapy session with Cathy. So far, Nathan has been very quiet with Cathy. At home or inside the car, he is more outgoing and very talkative. Lately, he loves to shout just for the fun of it.
While on our way to his speech therapy, he babbles, shout or just says anything to us inside the car. Once he is inside Cathy’s office, he becomes quiet. He hardly talks. He will play with the toys Cathy provides but when she tries to talk to him, he doesn’t respond. Cathy asked us if he is always quiet like this. We told her that it is unusual for him to be so quiet. To show proof that Nathan isn’t a quiet boy, I showed her a video I took of Nathan with my iPhone playing with his toys. In the video, he was very talkative and making playful sounds.
During Nathan’s speech therapy, Cathy told us that he has a good attention span for a 2 year old. After she gave Nathan a toy to play with, she noticed that he would find many different ways to play with that toy while other 2 year old kids she worked with will forget about the toy and move onto other things. She also noticed that Nathan is a deep thinker and has a certain method when he plays with his cars. He just doesn’t play with the cars but he also thinks about how to play with them like putting all of them in a single line like as if to create a train of cars.
During one of the sessions, my son did get carried away. Cathy had some plastic extendable tubes she had Nathan play with. Actually it was Cathy who started to swing the tube like as if it were a sword. So Nathan saw that and started swinging the plastic tube as well. He liked swinging the tube so much that he started to hit Cathy with it! So we told him stop hitting Cathy! 🙂
After that incident, Nathan started to say some words to Cathy like ‘fall’ and ‘oh oh’ when a toy fell on the floor.
So far, Cathy wants to see Nathan once a week. Then we will see how he has progresses after few months or so.
We went to Costco after dinner because my son needed more milk and we needed more chicken tamales 🙂 After years of shopping at Costco, something happened there that we never experienced before. While we were at the electronics section (my husband’s favorite area at Costco), all the lights went out! At the time the lights went out, some people screamed! Since the entire warehouse went dark, it felt like I was in a zombie movie because all I saw was people walking slowly in the dark. It was kinda creepy. Good thing I downloaded the flashlight app into my iPhone.
After 5 mins later, some sections became lit such as the freezer section that stored frozen foods. About 70% of the warehouse was still in the dark.
Some aisles were very dark
While we were still doing some shopping, we noticed that the Costco employees were guarding all exit doors. They were standing at the front and back exit doors. Seriously, do the Costco employees think that everyone will automatically turn into thieves when the lights turn off and start looting the place? Kinda funny just seeing them guarding the exits with their arms on their waist.
After we paid for the items and walked back to our car, all the lights in the parking lot went dark! When we turned around to look at the Costco warehouse, the lights were out again. But when we looked at other nearby retail stores, all the lights were on. So this blackout problem was only happening at Costco.
After Costco, we went to Target to look for a Christmas gift for a child we will never get to meet. At times, Pixar has this Family Giving event during Christmas holiday. For this Family Giving event, you choose a card with a child’s name on it then buy the gift s/he wants for Christmas. Then my husband brings the unwrapped gift back to his work and Pixar will deliver the gifts to these children. This is our second time taking part in this Family Giving event. For our first time, we chose two kids (one girl and one boy).
The child we chose is named Mark and is 4 years old. In his wishlist, he wants a set of HotWheels. His second choice is Matchbox.
We got him a 20-pack set of HotWheels.
Also at Target, I found another possible Christmas gift for my husband. Hmm, you think he will like the Superman one?
Back at home, my husband was watching Snoop Dog perform at the Jimmy Fallon show. He actually told me he wouldn’t mind having that hat that Snoop Dog was wearing.
I told him I’ll just buy him the Goofy hat!
Nathan got his early Christmas present from his uncle Marvin. The bike is too high for him but he’ll grow.
Christmas is almost here! What should I give my husband for Christmas?? For my son, I can buy him a new toy and clothes. But how about my husband?? I feel like he has everything! Well actually, he doesn’t have everything.
Since it’s cold nowadays, I can give him a nice cozy Christmas sweater!
My husband needs more socks. I figured how about giving him these wonderful toe socks!
Will my husband love any of the gift ideas above? Well how about this one for his S2000… a CARSTACHE!
This is how it will look like on my husband’s S2000
Too bad the CARSTACHE is pink! So he probably won’t like that one.
Last night, I was watching TV and I saw this commercial for Forever Lazy! I think I’ve found the right Christmas gift for my husband! 🙂
OK, I can’t stand the shoulder strap in the car. But my husband better not get me this for Christmas!
Exactly one year ago, we met our son Nathan for the first time! Gotcha Day is an adoption term meaning the day the parent and child meet for first time. So it isn’t a word I just made up. 🙂
I remember looking for a 1yr old that was either crawling or walking. When we arrived at the orphanage administration office, the office worker told me that the boy running around the furniture is my son! I was thinking ‘WOW, that boy can run!’
When I first saw him, I was afraid to approach him because I didn’t know what to do. Then again, since he was running so fast, how was I even able to stop him and talk to him? 🙂
Also when I first saw him, all I can think about were his yellow clothes especially his pants with a slit in the middle that exposed his damp diaper!
A year ago, Nelson and I got dropped off at SFO to travel to China to get our little boy Nathan after having Thanksgiving dinner at his parents house. Can’t believe it has been a year! Time really flies! The picture I took at SFO a year ago.
We took Cathay Pacific to fly from SFO to Hong Kong. Since we had several hours layover in Hong Kong, we decided to take a tour of the city. After touring Hong Kong, we took the flight from Hong Kong to Wuhan City which was about 2 hrs flight. I remember being so tired during the flight. I slept most of the way to Wuhan. When I woke up on the plane, the tray was down and it had food on top. I didn’t realized that the flight attendant had given me food! I don’t think I even ate it. All I wanted to do was sleep.
When we landed in Wuhan and our driver was taking us to our hotel, honestly I was already thinking about going home! Wuhan’s air was so polluted! At first I thought it was fog, but it was pretty much air pollution. It was very dusty. When we toured Wuhan on foot, I remember coughing a lot to clear my throat. The locals living in Wuhan must have very strong lungs!
If Nathan ever wants to visit Wuhan to see where he was from, I guess I would have to go back to Wuhan with him even if it means I would have to endure the air pollution.
Today, we went to Discovery Kingdom (Marine World). During the Fall season, the park is only open from 2pm to 9pm on certain days. We used our Season Passes to get in. Our Season Pass also gives us free parking.
My nieces and I rode a kiddie roller coaster. Too bad Nathan is not tall enough to ride it yet.
Nelson and Nathan going for a slide down the snow
After I found a spot to park the stroller at Looney Tunes (where the kiddie rides are located), Nathan decided to fall asleep! 🙂 He took about 30 to 40 mins nap. While he took a nap, my nieces went on the kiddie rides.
After he took his nap, he was wide awake and very curious about the rides all around him
He was very excited to ride the train
The food is very expensive here at Discovery Kingdom. A family pizza meal costs $45!!
After Discovery Kingdom, we ordered pizza at Round Table near our home and ate it back at our house. After dinner, I helped Jeffrey bake brownies because he had BURNT his first batch of brownies days ago. So he needed some help from the master baker… me! 🙂
Apprentice Jeffrey-mon cracking an egg
Apprentice Jeffrey-mon adding the last ingredient into the bowl
Apprentice Jeffrey-mon using a hand-mixer for first time! Special guest Pastry Chef Jewel… 🙂
Pastry Chef Jewel showing Apprentice Jeffrey-mon on how to scoop the brownie mix out of the bowl
Having apprentice Jeffrey-mon test the brownies to make sure they are not burnt. Rotates the brownie tray so that one side doesn’t get burnt. Then uses a timer so that the brownies don’t get burnt! 🙂
