Holidays at the Disneyland Resort

I love the holidays and this time of year. The holidays aren’t the holidays without a visit or two to the Disneyland Resort. I love Disneyland at Christmastime. It truly is my favorite time to visit and experience the magic of the holidays Disney style!

We had the opportunity to visit last Saturday for a special mom blogger preview of the resort decked out for the holidays. I’m not kidding when I say that every year it gets better! There are decorations everywhere. The park is absolutely breathtaking during the holidays.

One of our family’s Christmas traditions is to head over the park at least once during the season and watch the Christmas parade. We pick a spot near small world, pack a snack and watch the very fun parade. This year I paid close attention to my daughter who was absolutely awestruck watching her favorite characters and Santa of course! We enjoyed every minute of it and can’t wait to head back this week to watch it again.

After we finished watching the parade we headed over to Big Thunder Ranch that is transformed into Santa’s Reindeer Roundup. You can head over to see Santa’s reindeer close up, color, create a craft and of course visit Santa himself! It was a hot day and we enjoyed being able to sit down, relax, color, enjoy the atmosphere and course take a picture with Santa!

I think Santa’s Reindeer Round Up is a hidden gem that not many guests know about. Make sure that you bring your camera and take a picture with Santa. We even found out what my daughter wanted for Christmas, a panda pillow pet. I’m sure that Santa will make sure to deliver that Christmas morning.

After catching Santa we couldn’t miss taking a ride on my favorite ride of all, especially during the holidays. Small World is just beautiful during the holidays. I could ride it over and over! The ride even smells like the holidays with gingerbread and peppermint smells in the air. We like to head over before the parade or fireworks to avoid a long line.

We then headed over to for a very special dinner at the Grand Californian and experienced many of the fun dishes served throughout the park. One must dessert this holiday season is the Gingerbread Mickey Mouse beignettes, that are found at Cafe Orleans. They are out of this world! We also were able to meet the newest character to the Disneyland Resort, Duffy the Bear. He is a popular Disney character in Japan and you can now find him at California Adventure. My daughter and I both fell in love with him. He is absolutely adorable!

We ended our special day with a warm mug of hot chocolate watching the beautiful fireworks and the snow fall on Main Street. I am a bit of a wimp for admitting this but I couldn’t help but get teary eyed as the beautiful firework show ended, the castle was lit up in all it’s glory and the snow started falling down on Main Street. The snow on Main Street and firework show has become part of our family’s Christmas tradition. We made many memories last week and I can’t wait to make more beautiful memories at Disneyland with my family soon. Make sure to take the family at least once this year! It is truly a memory making experience!

PictureItPostage a must for holiday cards

Thanksgiving is next week and I like to send out my Christmas/holiday cards the day after. I usually address them Thanksgiving night and mail them off Friday morning. This year I’m extra ambitious and plan on assembling and stamping my own cards. This year I will also be adding personalized stamps to my cards. It gives them that special touch and they are very reasonable and easy to make/order.

A few days ago I had the opportunity to experience making PictureItPerfect postage. It took only 3 steps and were in my mailbox in only a few days.

1st step – head over to PictureItPostage

2nd step- upload your picture

3rd step- add color and place your order.

That’s it! It took less than 5 minutes and I had the stamps delivered in less than a week.

Here is the finished product.

I love the finished product and can’t wait to send off my cards this year.

The folks at PictureItPostage have provided a great discount coupon/promo off your order. Enter the code MOTHERHOOD at checkout for $4.00 off your order. Coupon expires on Jan 31st, 2011.

Discloure- This post is part of a paid campaign with TheMotherhood and PictureItPostage.

Rainy Day Activity- Cheap Movies

It looks like it will rain this weekend and I don’t know about you but if it is cold and I have bored kids I want to do something that is simple, fun and well cheap. The movies are usually a good idea but tickets can add up quickly. A night at the movies has become painfully expensive. With prices hovering over $10 a person, it can really put a dent in your pocketbook. Thankfully we have several dollar/bargain theaters in the Southern California area. There are local dollar theaters in the Inland Empire, LA , Orange and Ventura Counties. I searched and searched and couldn’t find anything for the San Diego area. If you know of one in the area , please email me so I can add it to the list.

We love visiting bargain theaters because they’re inexpensive and if the kids became bored and we need to leave, we are only out a couple of bucks. Family films are particularly popular at these type of theaters, so it’s usually easy to find something for everyone. We’ve had a great experience and I’m sure your family will too!!

Los Angeles County
Academy Cinema – Pasadena – $2 before 6pm, $3 after
Cinemark Movies – Lancaster- $2 before 6pm, $2.50 after, $1.50 all day Wed
Starplex Cinema – La Mirada -$2 all day, $1.00 all day Tue

Orange County

Cinema City – Anaheim Hills- First run movies- $5 all day Tue, $5 before noon, $6 before 6
Charter Center Theatre – Huntington Beach – $ 3 all day, everyday
Starplex Cinema – Irvine -$2 all day, $ 1.00 all day Tue
PictureShow@Mainplace Mall – Santa Ana – $2 all day, $1.00 all day Tue

Inland Empire
Regency Towngate 8 – Moreno Valley – $ 2.00 before 6, $ 3 after
Temeku Discount Theaters – Temecula – $3.50 before 6, $ 4.25 after
Cinemark Cathedral City – Cathedral City – $2 before 6, $ 2.50 after

Ventura County
Regency Buenaventura – Ventura- $3.00 all day