Christmas Eve Day

---

Santa Barbara to Santa Monica

We started the 24th morning in a windstorm but the pool was so warm everyone had to go swimming. We had a great view of the ocean from our RV spot and the pool - it was pretty cool! Once the rain started swim time ended and we piled back into Spirit with a load of clean clothes and clean, showered bodies! Then off to another beach. We had to make a pit stop to do an errand for Santa - that took awhile. We had hoped to chase more waves at Emma State Beach but somehow we got lost in Ventura - ended up with a fun picture of the Santa Claus Lane road sign though. And by then we were ready to get closer to Anaheim. So Geoff drove us to Santa Monica. We got to the boardwalk just after 6pm and everything was shutting down for Christmas Eve. We chased snowflakes on the beach - yes, snowflakes. They had these snowflake lights that danced around the sand and the kids made a fun game out of running around with them. Then we played tag under the pier and walked back to the motorhome for our Christmas Eve feast. I think we had shrimp and Top Ramen - the meals are kind of blurring together. It was simple and sweet. We even made a birthday cinnamon bread for Jesus' birthday and enjoyed the top part of that - of course the bottom was too burned and had to be thrown out. Then one last game - sand soccer - and pictures with the dragon statue (we acted out the sea serpent scene from the "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader") and we were off to one of our main destinations - DISNEYLAND!

Our friends and neighbors from Spokane, the Lenockers, were already in Anaheim with their family so we were able to hook up and watch the Christmas Parade together on Christmas Day which was extra fun. Cold but fun. Then the monsoon hit and we had to get out of the park to dry up, fuel up and warm up! Then we had the fun of seeing all the gorgeous Christmas lights on Sleeping Beauty's Castle and New Orleans street and we saw the finale for Fantasia and we enjoyed our family favorite ride, Splash Mountain.

**A little sidebar - Geoff couldn't have been more disappointed with the Haunted Mansion. They did it up with the characters from the movie, "Nightmare before Christmas", and it was a huge bummer. Hopefully they change it back to amazing ride it was after the holidays. The Submarine ride is now tied to "Finding Nemo", only worth seeing once. The Pirates of the Carribean added Jack Sparrow and Davey Jones from the movie too - still a fun ride and they left enough of the original features. Small World was decked out to the hilt for the holidays and it was spectacular! Even the Storybook ride had teeny tiny little wreaths and presents on the Three Little Pigs houses and minatures Christmas trees in Alice and Wonderland and the Snow White cottage - very precious and detailed. The coolest bathroom I've seen has to be by the Alice and Wonderland ride. The bathroom doors are done up as cards, diamonds, spades, etc. and there's heart tiles bordered on the walls. Even the lights have hearts around them - very fun!

---