Christmas Christmas Christmas

Christmas morning, its finally here! Normally We line up from Youngest to oldest, but Decided to flip the script this year so wee Zany is in the back, Eddy checks to make sure the adults are settled so they won't get clobbered by the children in their excitement.

Santa Brought Dec Disney infinity game!

And Hobbit movies for Quint!

Just because its christmas, and you have just found your stocking filled by Santa doesn't mean that you don't have to get your hair braided!

Zany was like a cat opening a present, she would tear off and throw the tiny teeny bits of wrapping paper for her brothers to clean up. Pa has a present too!

McCoy shows off his book, while Archy reads some very important instructions.

Quint recieved a neon orange ensemble

Eddy seems pleased to get a video game of some sort.

Finally its Pa's turn.

Liltle Quint made this for Rhi to keep her magazines in.

Zany loves her new Artistocat cat Princess.

who is that hiding in the stack of presents?

Towards the end of the day, Archy cuddles his tiger.

Nona told us that when they were growing up they would display their presents on the bed for photos. quint shows off his haul.

Zany uses a different method.....

Christmas Eve Festivities

Christmas Eve always begins with a nice feast, followed by a Christmas program of songs and readings. I forgot to take pictures during some of the excitement, once again we need to have a photographer follow us around so we can fully enjoy our parties while having them properly documented. 

For the first time, the Carltons set up a long table that could fit every one in the play room. It made use of the window seats and was fun having everybody together, no kid table needed!

We even had fancy Sparkling Cider.

Donning festive sweaters, Dec and Quinton are getting along, a Christmas miracle!

We ate buffet style, here are some of the Vegetarian dishes, and  Rhi's Brussels sprouts were wonderful.

Meat dishes, kindly seperated so no mistakes would ensue

We did Christmas crackers, Archy sportin his crown.

Eddy pours our the beverage, 4 bottles does not last long with 10 people.

A wax mustached villain in training? No its Quint with his Cracker prize!

Eddy reads "'Twas the night before Xmas" I was using the low light setting and that blur in the lower left hand corner is Archy. Dec played a Sax solo, McCoy a piano solo, Archy, Zany and Quint each sang songs. 

Time for quick cuddle!

Everyone gets new pajamas, this year everyone got matching ones, including the parents. 

Rhi lets the kids open one present each, Dec gets a new CTR ring

Zany got a foam sword, and is ready to do battle with her brothers on equal footing.

Crazy Carltons are so ready for Christmas morning!

Carlton Christmas decorations

For the past few years we have celebrated Christmas at Eddy's and Rhi's. Rhi has a great love for vintage christmas decorations, and her house is spectacular. Here are just a few pics of her decor, I completely forgot to photo her family room maybe she will add a few photos.

The tablescape for Christmas eve dinner, with some very excited children

All along the top is Rhiannon's Dickens' village collection. It has grown quite a bit, they began collecting when they first got married.  each of the shelves has its own themes

The other side

One of the Christmas Trees

Mickey's Christmas Carol shelf, she has plans to make a backdrop

Vintage snowmen

A cute vignette, though I refuse to accept the 80's as vintage

A Collection of Santas of all shapes and sizes

This cutie is also very exicted for dinner to start!

Its a christmas miracle: A blog post

Well I broke first. I was waiting since I did the last blog to not post again until my Lazy Boned Sister did hers. But I attended two Christmas concerts and thought in the spirit of the season , to make a post.  Both of these concerts were pretty quick, and I didn't arrive early enough to practice to find the right settings, so not the best of pics, but hey at least I blogged!

Archy's class also a chance to play "Where's Archy?"

There he is! Singing greatly.

He is so much cuter then Rudolph don't ya think?

Here is McCoy's class. He is really good at being expressive when he sings. 

Here they are doing a dance, they did a nineties rap inspired program. 

right before they started singing with lights in the dark. It was a fun program and always good to hear different songs than normal. 

I have been bad at taking pictures of birds of late, and this guy would have none of it. 

Last day at Disney!

Well we had two wonderful days at the parks with fairly minimum crowds. We had planned to stay only at Disneyland for our third day as it is Rhi's and  My favorite. But overnight the crowds had moved in like crazy.  Halloween at Disney is very popular. The day started off by them not letting us walk to the mickey tram, due to parking lot construction and thereby adding to our previous two days of being on our feet, by walking maybe a mile and half extra. Oh well. No day at Disney is a bad day! Picture taking was still a bit on the slack-ful side. We need to hire a photographer to take pictures of us so we can focus on the fun to be had.

We began the day by me racing to Fast Pass for Star wars, The older Boys going on Indy, and meeting up in New Orleans land in the Pumpkin Beignet Line. We are very lucky to See Jack and Sally up close and personal. Archy tries to give him a hive five.

I may or may not have had a hiker heart attack that my camera was broke, when it was switched to live view finder, so that was my excuse for this pic. These Stormtroopers were from the dark side and got us in trouble by leading us to the wrong shuttle. We were very lucky that all 8 of us got in the front row, 

I was able to ride Manision one more time! And I plan on making this (maybe in a smaller scale ;) for my decorations. While us three girls rode Mansion the boys rode Splash Mountain. After all our FP were used we decided to hightail it over to California adventure to escape the crowds.  

Poor Archy was upset that he wasn't tall enough to ride Screamin, and refused to look at me for the whole ride!

Zany always ready to say "cheese"

Zany is flirtin with Donald! She was so happy to see to him.

Walking to relax in the redwood creek play area. These two just make me smile sometimes, the rest of the Family is ahead. 

It was really nice, we let the kids play and us older ones, took some much needed rest.  We had even had a break watching "aladdin" but we were exhausted! 

Rhi and Z plan our next trip along side Rhi's future car. 

Our time is winding down in California adventure as we make our way back to Disneyland! 

We rode Small world twice, so while in line we could see the Paint the night parade as we weren't ready to stand in line for along time for it.  

Biggest Regret of the trip: I didn't demand a family picture infront of the Castle! We even made it to Midnight! but we just go go go from place to place and next time I will make sure we do. The Castle was so pretty at night. We even made it to Midnight!

Always the last stop of the night if you go with Rhi, She loves to get silhouettes of her family to hand on here wall.  Maybe she will add a picture of them? Eddy was in the chair during this shot and I think Q was upset that no one had the energy to race to Splash Mountain but him.


It was such a wonderful trip, I am already trying to plan another one! There were no major fights and everyone had fun.  We bought some Mickey characters dressed as Star wars figures and I got my much sought after Zero popcorn bucket.

Here are everyone's favorite rides:

Zany- Ariel (California)
Archy - Pirates of the Caribbean (Disneyland)
McCoy - Screamin (California)
Declan - Indiana Jones (Disneyland)
Quinton - Screamin (California)
Ashlee - Haunted Mansion  (Disneyland)
Eddy - Splash Mountain (Disneyland)
Rhiannon - Grizzly River Run (California)