Almost Christmas!

We have been keeping ourselves busy, running back and forth between Disneyland and Santa Barbara, and a bunch of other places. Mr. Mustard had Thursday through Sunday off this week, which was just wonderful. We have been aching to spend some time together, and so we really cherished these past four days.

On Thursday, our trio went to Disneyland and California Adventure. We rode ALOT of rides, as usual, and watched the parade together as a family. Mr. Mustard showcased his fatherly patience by riding the Monsters, Inc. ride with Paprika nine times in a row. We all had it memorized by our last trip.

This weekend, we went up to Santa Barbara to attend a very fancy holiday party in Montecito. Mr. Mustard's mom watched Paprika for us, and Mr. Mustard and I enjoyed a wonderful date night together. The theme of the party was "A Christmas Carol" and all of the food and decor was English 19th Century. There was a fantastic dance band, an open bar, and even giant amounts of real snow for sledding and snowball fights. This may not seem amazing to some of you, but snow in Southern California doesn't just happen naturally. It was the best party I've been to in a long time.

Tick tock on Christmas- it's almost here. I am so sad that I won't be visiting my family in Indiana this year. It's the first year I haven't gone home for Christmas. I am already missing everyone so much. I've gone to my grandma and grandpa's house every Christmas for the past 30 years (except for a few Christmases I spent with my dad in Boston as a young child), so missing Christmas this year is so sad to me. But, we'll be creating some traditions here. I'm cooking this year (yikes!) and Paprika will be opening her presents under our tree on Christmas morning.

I hope to create some beautiful Christmas memories for her. I really hope her childhood is full of magic and wonder. Already we've been telling her about Santa and how we're going to bake cookies for him the night before Christmas, and leave out treats for the reindeer. She is more excited about that than anything else, I think!