Christmas at Disneyland 2007

Christmas is fast approaching so that means it's time for the traditional Sheehan Family trip to Disneyland to visit Santa and enjoy the decorations and general joie de vivre, and also avoid being trampled by a zillion other people who spend their holiday at the park. We actually only go to the park at holiday time for the Santa visit, the cookie decorating, the parade and a trip to the Holiday Haunted Mansion. It's too crazy to do much else.

What a difference a few years makes! Here's our picture from our first family trip to see Santa!


Comparing the two . . . I can only reflect that Santa better bring me a copy of 101 Ways to Eat Salad.

Jack really wanted to ride the choo-choo and see the fire engine, so we stopped by the Main Street Fire Dept. first . . .

Then it was a quick Disneyland Railroad ride to Toontown station and off to Santa's Reindeer Roundup, which has become a fun holiday treat for us since we moved out here.

Santa's actual reindeer come to stay at Disneyland at Christmas time! Isn't that amazing? And you can see them up close.

Jack was a little leery of them . . .

Especially when these two boys seemed ready to mix it up over a handful of hay or kibble or something . . .

So we headed over to the cookie section, complete with entertainment from a fiddler helped out by Pluto in his reindeer costume.

Jack and Mommy got busy decorating cookies . . .

While Daddy got into some serious cookie decorating of his own!

I was justifiably proud of my madd cookie-decorating skillz, as the kids today might say.

Then it was time for the big moment: visiting the man himself in his rustic cabin right there on the grounds of Disneyland! We'd been prepping Jack for this moment for weeks, and he was very excited to see Santa.

Finally it was our turn and Jack got right up there and told Santa what he wanted: a bicycle and a truck! Santa was so nice to Jack we're sure he will come through for him on Christmas morning.

The reason Jack's on the floor is that halfway through his session with Santa he said "Uh-oh!" and grabbed his butt! Santa deftly slid Jack off his lap -- Santa's done this before, of course -- and the session proceeded from there without incident.

As it turned out, Santa had no cause to fear -- as Jack informed us immediately on our departure, "I cut the cheese."

Night was falling on Disneyland and I managed to get this very nice picture of the Mark Twain sailing the Rivers of America in deep twilight:

Then it was parade time!

Alas the holiday fireworks were cancelled due to wind conditions at high altitudes. Too bad, 'cuz Jack had the best seat in the house.

But they still make it snow at Disneyland at Christmas time. Jack tried his best to catch some of the "flakes."

A quick photo op at the beautiful Main Street Christmas tree, and it was time to head home.