The Pre-Christmas Buildup

Our Christmas season started off with a bang and a visit from the big man himself.

For some reason Santa always insists that Grandma Kathy sit on his lap, too. Hmmmmm....

Grandpa Farney had to do some quick talking to get himself off the naughty list.

 The boys made some, ahem, detail-oriented gingerbread houses. Caulder was especially proud of the dog pooping in his front yard, complete with M&M droppings. Isn't that sweet?

Tukk put a lot of heart and soul into his. It's hard to focus on building your house when there's so much candy to be eaten. And really, why waste frosting on a snowy yard when you could be licking it straight off the knife?

We also did some cookie decorating at the McClellans, with pretty much the same results. Candy pieces on cookie: 7. Candy pieces in Tukk's belly: infinity.

Twist was asking for some big ticket items this year and wanted to make sure Santa didn't forget, so he wrote a letter, complete with reindeer drawing on the envelope.

"Dear St. Nick, I'm pretty sure I've been good but I'm not 100% sure. So let's get down to business bro. For Christmas, I want the air cargo lego. An iPhone. An invisibility cloak. A spy gear set for me and Tukk. Well, that's all. Merry Christmas. Note: Purple was the closest  to black I had. Sorry about that."

Who tells Santa, "Let's get down to business bro"? This kid, that's who.

The Sunday before Christmas we had the Johnson family party at Grandma Sarah's. The kids actually have more fun playing together than opening presents. It's like torture to drag them out of the basement away from their games long enough to get down to the present opening. And yes, Cole worked really hard to get in the picture twice. You can never have too much Cole Bott, you know. 

The Bott Family Christmas Eve party carried on for about the 67th year in a row. We've had to move it to a church because we don't all fit in Grandma Donna's house anymore. In case you're wondering, this is what happens when you interrupt Tukker's present opening to make him take a picture. You get the crazy eyes. 

And this is what happens when you try to get Twist to take a picture. You get the "I've already mastered the 'my parents are so lame' look of a 13 year old at the tender age of 8" face.

Grandma Kathy scored during the white elephant gift exchange. She looks good with a beard, doesn't she?

But I think Cole came out on top. Between stealing the drink hat and making my brother Kolby's He-Man Christmas sweater look so damn good, he was pretty much the king of Christmas. Pa rum pum pum pum!

The Christmas Rodent

We saved our pennies all year so we could have an early Christmas party with this guy.

These two were so excited. But I think not quite as excited as Cole and I were. 

We've never been at Christmastime before, and it was so fun to see the park all decorated for the holidays.

Following Bott family tradition, we hit Pirates as soon as we got there. 

We got to go on the new Cars ride for the first time, and it was super fun! Except for the 40 minute wait for our turn. After our first ride we fast passed it so we didn't have to wait so long. These two aren't known for their patience.

The obligatory front gate photo.

The water/light festival of magic. And don't feel like you guys aren't worth me taking the ten seconds it would cost me to google this and put the actual name in. I just feel like "water/light festival of magic" has got to be a thousand times better than whatever the real name is. You know those Disney people don't actually know what they're doing. And my name has a slash in it, people. A slash.

What could possibly be better than a slash, you ask? Having the opportunity to feast your eyes on this delicious attraction. That's right... Marky Mark, in the flesh. Cole and I sat and giggled and ogled him (sadly, Cole was doing a lot more giggling and ogling than I was... he has a bit of a man crush on Marky) for ten minutes while we tried to work up the courage to go talk to him. In the end I decided I didn't want to tempt him to leave his gorgeous supermodel wife for this mess from south Utah county, so we just left them alone. You're welcome, gorgeous supermodel wife.  

Besides, why would I waste time with Mark Wahlberg when I've got this hunk of man flesh to party with? I guarantee Mark has never taunted gorgeous supermodel wife by double fisting churros while she goes on one of the crappy Bug's Life rides with a 5 year old. And if you ain't married to someone who will double fist churros then you ain't livin'.

I'm thinking this should be on a Disney postcard. The poise. The elegance.

Tukk was finally big enough for Star Tours. I think my favorite part of the whole trip was when we blasted off and he looked over at me and asked, in all seriousness, "Mom, are we actually in space?" That, my friends, is the magic of Disneyland.

And even though it was her fourth (or maybe fifth?) time at Disneyland this year, and she'd just gotten back from a trip there with her brother two weeks before, Yaya won Grandma of the year by flying out one more time to go with the boys. We said NOTHING to them about her coming, because we didn't think there was any way she'd be able to pull it off. But then one night Caulder actually prayed that she'd be able to come, because he said Disneyland just isn't the same without her. So of course I told her about the prayer. So of course she had to come to make sure his faith wasn't in vain. So basically she got suckered. Yes!

I think it was all worth it for her, though, because one day while we were there I told Caulder he was my favorite Disneyland buddy, and he said, "Yeah, well Yaya is mine." I was, of course, shocked and hurt, and being the good mom I am I made sure he knew it. He just said, "You're fun, too, but after all, Yaya IS the queen of Disneyland." And really, how could I argue with that?

The Haunted Mansion is so spooky and Christmasy.

Twist loved the Indiana Jones ride.

I loved making cherished, eternal memories with my family. 

Okay, we all know I only go for the food, but look at me making cherished, eternal memories with this delicious pineapple ice cream. It's pure magic!

And of course we had to get a goodbye churro on our way out the very last day. You know, because who knows how long it will be until our next chance to spend $20 on churros?

This dude took home an Indiana Jones souvenir. Cutest mini Indy ever.

And because you can just never have too many, Caulder picked another light saber. When the Empire attacks Jedis will be flocking to the Bott family weapons arsenal to get outfitted for the rebellion.

It was an awesomely exhausting vacation. I think we should already start saving to go back.

PS - Betcha can't guess which ride is the boys' favorite.

Let's just say someone got a little handsy after our 15th time on Splash Mountain. That face. Oi. There are just some things you can't unsee.

I actually lost count of how many times we did Splash Mountain. There were a couple of times that we got to go around twice without even getting off. The first time the employee asked if we wanted to go again Caulder said, "Yes! You just made my dream come true!" Yaya may be the Queen of Disneyland, but Caulder is definitely the king.