I wish every Thanksgiving could be just like this one! (Part 3)

Happy New Year, you guys!  I am a little spazzed out that it is 2013 already and I’m only half way through telling you about our Thanksgiving vacation in Disneyland.  Let’s just go ahead and blame AT&T for holding our internet service hostage over the past week and Santa for that whole Christmas-y time-suckage thing which just really shoved blogging right in front of the not-gonna-freaking-happen bus.


*shaking my fist in a rage*


But anyway….


My third day in Disneyland with Scope and Wednesday was Black Friday.  It started out extremely foggy and gray.  In fact, every surface in Disneyland was dripping with water and the whole place was pretty much deserted when we got there.





Like, so deserted that we actually had the whole Haunted Mansion Holiday ride all to ourselves!  (Yes, really!  We were the only people in there.)














And, hey looky, Pirates of the Caribbean was empty as well.  Sweet!








We met the Mad Hatter.





Then we met up with my mom, my sister, and her three kids (Thing 1, Thing 2 and Thing 3) for brunch at the Mary Poppins-themed Jolly Holiday Café on Main Street.





Wednesday got a chocolate-covered Mickey Mouse cookie.





And she got in some good quality cousin-time with Thing 1 and Thing 2 too.





(Thing 3 wasn’t exactly in the mood for socializing with the other kids…. or, well, with anyone, yet.  But she sure was rocking that skull binky!)





After brunch, we all skipped over to the Silhouette Studio on Main Street.





It’s a Disneyland tradition in my family that we get our silhouettes done every time we vacation there.  The silhouette artists are amazing!  They cut your profile out of black paper in about, ohhhh, fifteen seconds, and they are dead-on too.  Here’s the one of me and my sister in 1976.





Cute, huh?  I took Wednesday into the Silhouette Studio in 2001 and 2008 and we had the same artist cut her silhouette both times.  I definitely remember her…. what I didn’t expect though was that she remembered us as well!  Unbelievable.  When our whole herd walked into the tiny Silhouette Studio that day, the same artist was there and said to me, “oh my gosh, I remember you.  You brought your little girl in here several years ago and another time a few year before that, right?”


*stunned stare*


Wow.  I wonder how many customers that woman sees each year….  probably thousands and thousands!  I can’t believe Wednesday and I are that memorable, honestly.  Dang.  Well, anyway, once again our silhouette artist was fantastic.  This is the silhouette she cut of the three of us.





Check it out, you can even see Scope’s mustache and beard!  Cute, cute, cute! 


As we were wrapping up our visit in the Silhouette Studio, suddenly Mickey Mouse came marching by with his band, playing Christmas carols.





Once Mickey’s marching band had moved on, we all headed over to Autopia.  Wednesday, my sister, and I took Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3 on the mini cars while Scope and my mom waited on the sidelines, watching us motoring by.  Wednesday and Thing 1 drove themselves.








Thing 2 drove me around the track…. and she was SO SERIOUS about it!





Next, we ran over to California Adventure where we saw Phineas and Ferb.





And Santa was just hanging out, relaxing.  *snicker*





Scope and I then left Wednesday with my mom and sister for a few hours because we had something very important to do.  You know there’s only one thing—ONE THING—that could possibly tear us away from Disneyland….  and that, of course, is our fabulous friend, JJ!        





JJ invited us over for dinner at her house.  So, we borrowed my brother’s girlfriend’s car for the evening and we made our way over to JJ’s.  We met her mom, we pigged out on uber-yummy Chinese food, but most importantly, we spent some good quality time with JJ.  I love her.  There, I said it.  I love her humor, her spirit, her smile, her story, and everything about her.  She showed us her awesome scrapbook which was full of pictures of her as a little girl doing fundraising with March of Dimes with all sorts of celebrities.  JJ is famous, didn’t you know?!  :-)


After JJ-palooza—(during which there may have been boob-honking.  I’m just sayin’)—we went back to Disneyland to catch the fireworks show with the family.  We watched it from Tomorrowland again, only this time the fog rolled in as the fireworks started up, which made the whole show misty and hazy, but still beautiful nonetheless.








After the fireworks, we were beat.  The fog was heavy, cold, and clingy, so we decided to make it an early night and headed back to our hotel.



Up next?….  Wednesday answers the question ‘did you ever dance with Eeyore in the pale moonlight?’






© Coracabana

Like a bewildered, cranky groundhog being yanked from its den, I am emerging from The Holidaze. Hi, how ya doin’?

Alrighty, let’s just jump right in here. Our Christmases were fantastic, yet mind-bogglingly busy and time-sucking. Frankly, I’m still disoriented and wandering ditzily around in a blind, stupid stupor from it all. I’m going to assume you are too.

And, yes, I said Christmases.

Christmas #1 was spent with Scope’s parents in Kewanee, IL, where we channeled our inner Guy Fieri and played Minute To Win It (Scope’s sister’s idea) and, among other impossible hijinks, attempted to migrate Oreo’s from our foreheads into our mouths using only our facial muscles.



(Not easy, people. Not. Easy.)

(That’s Scope’s sister and nephew pictured above, by the way. *snicker*)

Christmas #2 was just the three of us in our home in Chicago, where my hubby gave me a fragment of Voldemort’s soul (aka a horcrux locket) that I had been eyeing for many a moon (wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!) and Santa visited and noshed himself into an uncomfortable food coma on all the candy-ified cookies we baked for him.



And Christmas #3 was with my family back in Seattle, where we visited the Pike Place Market, left our grody mark on the Gum Wall, hung out with Callista, and celebrated New Year’s Eve AND Christmas all in one night. *whew!*




Of course, Fernando Von Bakonstein was with us the entire time and he enjoyed himself, having lunch with Wednesday and my nephew….



….and having a mondo throw down with Simon from The Chipmunks….



….and hobnobbing with other porcine folk he met in the Pike Place Market….



….and slurping hot chocolate at Seattle’s Best Coffee….



….and, most especially, making faces with Wednesday at poor Scope as he slept on the flight back home.



(Tee hee hee.)

So far 2012 has been little more than a blur, honestly. (It’s the 19th already?! Really?!) I went whole hog and made several resolutions, instead of just one, which I intend to keep this year. My resolutions?:

1. To Eat Healthier Foods. So far so good on that effort! In fact, in the past 19 days I have not only tolerated oatmeal every morning (which I have utterly loathed my entire existence) but I have actually grown to love the stuff. I know! Me liking mushy slop?! No way! But—taa-daa!—it’s happened.

2. To Build Muscle Mass. I have been trying and failing to lose weight since moving to Chicago a year and a half ago. After beating myself up over it all this time, I finally realized what the problem probably is: loss of muscle mass. Back in Seattle I was a nanny, hoisting hefty kids around every day. Sure, it was murder on my back, but it was great for my rear! So, this year, I vow to get strong again. In fact, I filled a suitcase full of hardback books which I have been working out with and toting around almost daily. *whew!* A stronger Cora is in the making! (And hopefully a stronger Cora will fit back into all of Nanny Cora’s cute, teeny former clothes. *fingers crossed*)

3. To Speak The Truth And Not Sugar Coat Things In A Misguided Effort To Try To Keep The Jerks Of The World Calm. This doormat is done playing nicely now. *pounding my fist into my hand*

4. To Take A Picture Each And Every Day In My Second Attempt At Project 365. You may recall I attempted Project 365 back in 2009/2010, but I abandoned it because life got too crazy what with my tonsillectomy, the wedding, and the cross-country move. With everything that was going on, taking a daily picture just fell right off of my list of priorities. I kind of regret that though. I wish I had kept the project up because I would love to have photos documenting my old Seattle house going from bustling home to bare rooms filled with packing boxes, but the sad fact is that I didn’t do it. I felt like I didn’t have time to take a picture every day. (But, really, how much time would it have taken?) Of course, there will be days I screw up and forget to do a picture, inevitably, but when that happens this time I won’t just drop the whole project and walk away, I’ll just take two pictures the next day to even it all out. (See? Thinking!) So far it’s been going splendiferously! I will be posting the project’s pictures here starting with my next post. I hope you guys enjoy seeing them as much as I’m loving taking them.

5. To Get My Bloggy Groove Back And Blog More Often. I figure Project 365 will help with that, right? :-)

So, anyway, Happy New Year!



Up next: Project 365. Stay tuned!

© Coracabana

Oops.

Hey, anyone remember that photographic quest I was sooooo excitedly venturing on? Y’know, Project 365? The one where I said I would take a picture every single day for an entire year? Anybody remember that?

….Anyone….?

….Anyone….?

….Hmm….? ….What? You—you mean you DO remember it?

Oh.

*guilty fidget*

I was kinda hoping no-one would recall—I mean…. well…. ummm….

*sad sigh*

Okay. Fine. I confess. I messed it up, alright? I DID take a picture every single stinkin’ day (well, except for that one day, but I sooooooo totally made up for it when I took the new camera Scope gave me for Christmas to the beach and shot like 200 pictures in an hour! Wheeeeeeee!!) but I got so far behind on posting them here thanks to the holidays (and whatnot) that now I have like 50 days worth of pictures I need to sort and post and, well, frankly, I just don’t wanna. So sue me.

Hey, that’s A LOT of pictures, okay?!?!

Plus, I accidently erased some of them off my camera before saving them on the computer. But after my initial ohhhhhhh poo moment of dawning comprehension, I realized I’m actually glad I erased them. They sucked anyway.

So, I’m still continuing with Project 365 – I haven’t abandoned it or anything - but I’ve decided that I’m just going to show you my favorite shots. At least until I’m all caught up. Trust me, it’s just better this way.

So, here are some of my favorite photos from Project 365:

Day 137 (December 2, 2009)

While I started up my car, my nephew helped scrape the ice off my windows with his bare hands….



Day 139 (Dec. 4)

It was a foggy morning at my daughter’s school….



Day 140 (Dec. 5)

While waiting at a red light I entertained myself by taking pictures of the distorted reflection in this truck’s bumper *snicker*….



Day 146 (Dec. 11)

I don’t know if this is a humming bird or not (it definitely flew like one), but it seemed woefully out of place in the freezing temps we had here in mid-December. The poor little thing was shivering!….



Day 149 (Dec. 14)

Christmas lights. Duh….





Day 154 (Dec. 19)

Slightly less photogenic sights at Seattle’s Pike Place Market….





Day 156 (Dec. 21)

Really? Ya think?….



Day 158 (Dec. 23)

Cookies for Santa….



[Coming soon: I’ll show you what magic I can conjure up with my new DSLR camera!! :-) Stay tuned….]

© Love Letters By Cora