Disney at Christmas!

The next morning we packed up and hit the road. We drove the few short hours from Vegas to Anaheim, checked into our hotel, then quickly headed to the parks! I had decided that this was the year I was finally going to get an annual pass, I go enough to make it worth it, and honestly it's silly I haven't ever taken the plunge.

So, if anyone wants to go to Disney between now and January 2018, hit me up!

We began our Christmas getaway in California Adventure, we had a list of treats we wanted to eat, and the bread bowls at the Wharf Cafe were one of them. 

I got a chicken salad in a bread bowl with one of their special edition gingerbread men cookies for dessert. Lex got the secret menu item, Mac and Cheese in a bread bowl. All our gluten filled dreams were coming true. We enjoyed live Christmas music while we ate our lunch and enjoyed the wonderful weather, cool and overcast.

The nautical themed Christmas decorations by the wharf were too cute to handle!

Then we headed to the Paradise Pier to ride Screamin', one of my favorite rides in California Adventure!

When we were done riding Screamin', all the magical twinkle lights had been turned on, and the pier was glowing yellow against the dark blue of the sky at dusk, my favorite time of day. We headed down to the shops to see what kind of goodies they had for Christmas.

After strolling through the shops and wishing I could buy all of the things in all of the shops, we walked up the other side of the pier on our way to Carsland. That section of the park was dedicated to Elena and the Three Caballeros, a show I watched tons when I was younger, so when I saw the three of them at a meet in greet, I got pretty excited

How adorable and festive is their Navidad meet and greet area?? I was dying

Next up was Cars Land! I love Cars Land, especially at Christmas, they have the cutest car themed Christmas decor.

This was the first year that Disneyland had the Festival of Holidays, and I was so happy I got to be there to try it out. This festival celebrates holidays from around the globe and had food and entertainment from several countries. It was super fun! I took more pictures of the food booths and banners during the day so I will post those in posts to come. We had checked out the food offerings online before we went and had made a list of things we wanted to try along with traditional Disney treats, we checked off one of the festival goodies tonight, Mistletoe Punch :)

Here is our list of treats we made before our trip. Some of the items were special limited edition items, some where special holiday items, some where fun restaurants and some were classics we make sure to get every time. We didn't have enough time/ big enough tummies to cross all our items off our list, but we did a pretty good job.

Trolley Treats candy store is an absolute dream at Christmas, I could not get enough of all the decorations made out of candy!

After our time in California Adventure, we went over to Disneyland to meet up with Laura! Lu is here with her in laws so we met up with them a few times throughout our trip, so fun!

The castle at Christmas is one of my favorite things!

We met up with Lu and friends at Splash Mountain, they had brought ponchos for us so I agreed to ride, otherwise I would have sat it out, I do not enjoy getting soaked when it's cold and dark outside. After splash we hit up Pooh Corner, the BEST place for Disney treats!

One of my favorite moments from our entire trip was when we stopped to listen to the New Orleans Square jazz band play Christmas Carols from the middle of the lake and it started to snow as they played I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. Disney sure knows how to create magical moments.

Another must see at Christmas time is, It's a Small World. Who am I kidding, the entire park is a must see at Christmas! But, seriously, Small World is Christmas Magic

The Jingle Cruise what a happy holiday surprise for me, I didn't know Jungle Cruise got a Christmas make overs during the holidays! We first rode it at night and it was too adorable for words, but impossible to take pictures of, so I made it a top priority to make sure we rode it during the day sometime, and we did so keep a look out for those photos, cause it is cuuuuute.

We stayed until park closing then walked out with the huge crowd. I was impressed with out much we fit in given we got to the park pretty late in the afternoon. We don't kid around when we do Disney!

An important part of doing Disney right is making sure you have room treats to enjoy at night before bed and in the morning before breakfast ;) I love Rice Krispie treats so I couldn't pass up this cute, Mickey shaped sugar bomb