Our Christmas in Las Vegas... and California!

Christmas Eve we spent at the Leishmans house, had a great dinner opened Christmas jammies and watched some up lifting Christmas movies. Claire was a wild one during the movie- Jodi go ther to stay calm for a few minutes by chatting about there nails. We came home and got the cookies and carrots (for all the reindeer) out and ready for Santa to come find our house.
In the morning this was all that was left.... Santa LOVES chocolate chip scones!

Our Christmas tree and Santa's magic dust

Grandpa Brad and Mary Ann came over to watch Claire open her presents and we had some breakfast.

Claire modeling her princess dress from Santa while taking to Grandma Diane.

Here's Mary Ann (well at least her feet) she was awesome and set up Claire's castle tent

About 9:30 that morning we decided we would drive to California to surprise Jason's family for Christmas dinner. We threw our clothes in a suitcase and were off. We called Maria by the time we got to Barstow and had Claire ask her if we could come to dinner... of course she was in shock and it took her a few minutes to realize she wasn't lying . We showed up just as they were starting dinner- it couldn't have been more perfect and we got to see lots of family that we haven't seen in a long time. A poker game always breaks out at a family function.

random pictures (most are taken by Claire)

Aunt Kat

Grandma Patti

Auntie Ree

Auntie Lee ( I love this picture)

And Annie stopped by the next morning before we left to come back home.

We had a great Christmas and lots of firsts, first Christmas in Nevada and Claire's first Christmas in California too!

3 cute girls

I LOVE these 3 girls, but I am particularly found of the one in pink!

Pre-Christmas in Utah

Claire was so excited to go on a plane, the night before we were to leave I told her what we will be doing in the morning when we wake up... we talked about how we brush our teeth, get dressed, daddy drops us off at the airport, we wait in line, take our shoes off, wait for the nice lady to tell us when to get on the plane, then go find our seats and buckle up. She then repeated the exact story to daddy and then to Grandma. She was excellent on the plane for our flight to Utah. She got to order her own apple juice and got some pretzels.Claire took this picture of the wing, then she said, "uh oh it's broken!"
Claire held my hand for most of flight and at the end when we were landing she grabbed my arm- love that girl! My favorite quote from the flight was when she dropped something and I leaned down to get it... "Oh no mommy be careful I don't want you to fall out the window!"
Claire got her own backpack for this flight (funny thing was she never even opened it so we saved everything for the flight home) Grandma Diane picked us up and we made a stop to see Sandie at work then ate at In-N-Out then went and saw Aunt Debbie at her work.

Aunt Debbie was off the next day so we went and ran a bunch of errands and then went and saw Sandie and Matthew for lunch- Costa Vida and Sonic drinks!

Claire had fun jumping off of Sandie's desk while we were there.

That night we went to Thanksgiving Point to see the lights- Claire and I in the car at the beginning of the drive

When we got home the girls said the were FREEZING, so they sat in front of the fire for a long time

Next morning we were decorating the ginger bread house and Claire and Brenna thought they should dress for the part.

Here's our finished product.

Saturday night was Peter Breinholt's Christmas concert in downtown SLC. We finally talked my mom into going with us. We first stopped at PF Changs then went over to the concert.

Such a fun show as always!! I enjoyed every minute of it- especially when he started singing a song I requested!!
Sunday morning was (an early) Christmas!

Two of Claire's favorite gifts were this flip slip from soon to be cousin-in-law Jen and...

the Hairspray soundtrack from Grandma Diane!! Both of these have been used daily since then

Loved Abby and Brenna's reaction to the gift we got them

We then went to church came home and had a delicious ham dinner. Then Sandie and Matthew took us to the airport for our flight home. Claire wanted to wear one of her skirts on the airplane, I wasn't gonna argue because it was really cute. After going through security we were walking towards the escalators and one of the security ladies said, hey let's see you spin little ballerina... I thought no way would she do this, and all of a sudden she lets go of my hand and spins in the middle of the walkway. Everyone then clapped for her and Claire just smiled and walked away!

Nation's tallest Christmas tree

We saw an advertisement that the M Resort was going to have the Nation's tallest Christmas tree (109 ft) ... no way, we had to go see for ourself. We talked Jason's dad and Mary Ann into going with us. So we went the night that they were lighting it and of course they had some dancers and singers perform before they could light it. It was freezing that night so we went inside and found a spot to sit
Claire decided it was her time to perform, so she got on the table and entertained us and some people sitting close by.

She took my camera and took these pictures.

Then it was finally time to go out and see the tree, they had a count down and then the lights were on. Ohhhhh! Ahhhh!!! Yes the tree was BIG but I was expecting each branch to be wrapped in lights. It was a nice night despite the cold but we can say we were there.

Long day out

We had to be out of our house from 9-5 for our apartment to be cleaned. Now that's a long time to be out especially when Jay had to be at work by 12 and we don't have family or friends here. So we started off having a late breakfast at the Green Valley Ranch with Grandpa Brad and Mary Ann. Then Jay had to leave for work so Claire and I were on our own. We went to the post office, Kohls, the mall, then grabbed some food for an early dinner, went and watched the airplanes land during the daytime (Claire was so excited) then headed to Home Depot and finally ended up at the grocery store and got home at 5:15. She was awesome the entire day and I was very grateful!

We made it to Disneyland after we took our family pictures. It was nice being able to see all the holiday decorations up, I love the castle at Christmas time! We did our usual rides and finally made it on Peter Pan for Claire's first time...

Buzz Lightyear
the Carousel
and Small World
(Cute little touch, they added a small statue of Elvis on the surfboard by Lilo and Stitch)

We went and had lunch at the Hungry Bear and watched the ducks and the boats go by.

So much easier than waiting in the 30+ minute line, she got her picture with Tigger... in the background

We watched the new show, Princess and the Frogand watched the Christmas Parade, Claire did really good waiting an hour for the parade to start. She ate some popcorn and chatted on the phone with family. We loved the Christmas parade, I videoed it so she could watch it once we got home.

We then went to find a spot to watch the firework show up close. Found a perfect spot but the bad news was that we still had 1 1/2 hours until the show started but just then they had this small 'show' where they lit up the castle (so pretty) Claire was then saying she was freezing and tired so I couldn't force her to stay so we started to make our way out of the park

We went to check out our brick and Claire laid down for a picture.

We took our pictures

by the California sign, well one of us and the rest of Claire. We love living so close to be able to make these small trips to California.