Chapter 34
We Wish You a Merry Christmas…

(Originally posted May 30, 2013)

Christmas Eve arrived, and we put all of our presents for each other out under the tree. It had to be a fairly lean year when it came to gift-giving, but that certainly didn’t mean we couldn’t get each other anything. Tracy and I are always very good at “deal finding,” and we had managed to rustle up a decent supply of Amazon.com gift cards from different phone apps that offered rewards. We were, therefore, able to do most of our shopping for each other online without having to lay out much “real” money.

When the presents were under the tree, it still looked quite exciting.

We always open one present each on Christmas Eve, so after getting all ready for bed, we prepared to open our first gifts.

I gave Tracy a Disneyland hoodie that I had found at the Character Depot outlet in Fullerton. Apparently this outlet used to have a decent selection of Disneyland merchandise, but it underwent a change of ownership in the last year or so. Now it is underwhelming at best, but I was able to dig through the junk to find this sweatshirt. It’s actually a child’s extra-large, and it’s still a little loose on Tracy!

Now it was time for my first present.

Tracy got me new slippers because my old ones were wearing down significantly. I love anything with my friend Mickey Mouse on it, and when I put them on with my Disney pajamas, it really pulled the whole outfit together.

Now it was time to go to sleep. Tracy and I always read The Polar Express aloud on Christmas Eve night as one of our favorite traditions. After Santa’s sleigh bell was lost (and found again), we hit the pillows and were out.

We awoke on Christmas morning to find another beautiful California day in lieu of a white Christmas, but we didn’t mind that one bit.

Our stockings had been filled up the night before—by Santa??

Here’s Tracy’s loot.

From left to right, we have:

Red Velvet Coffee from Cost Plus World Market – Tracy had spotted this coffee while we were at the store together and couldn’t understand why I kept insisting she shouldn’t get any even though Red Velvet is her favorite. She didn’t realize I already had gotten this little bag as a stocking-stuffer)

“Snowman Poo” – These little candies are actually quite delicious.

Stroopwafels – Any readers from The Netherlands out there? At the company Tracy worked for in NYC, half the people were from that area of Europe, and one of the engineers from The Netherlands placed a bulk order of stroopwafels from his family back home. These are delicious wafers with caramel sandwiched between them. Almost impossible to describe, really. Anyway, Tracy ordered a couple bags from The Netherlands, and we thoroughly enjoyed them, but when they ran out we were sad because we didn’t think we’d ever find them again. Then one day as we walked through World Market, we noticed these packages of stroopwafels sold right here in the U.S. I had to get some for Tracy’s stocking

A “Meow” car decal – I don’t think I’ve ever explained our use of the word “meow” on my trip reports. Mostly, I think if you all really understood Tracy and my particular brand of “crazy,” you would instantly stop reading. It all started when we re-watched Super Troopers, one of our favorite comedies, a few years ago. Anyone who has seen the movie will know the scene where one of the cops constantly replaces normal words with the word “meow” to see if anyone notices. Since then, we say “meow” in almost every situation that it could be applicable. I don’t think Tracy or I have said the words “yes,” “yeah,” “now” or “immediately” to each other in YEARS (replacing them instead with the words “meow,” “meow,” “meow,” and “im-MEOW-diately” respectively). When I saw someone driving in CO with a “Meow” car decal in their back window, I thought it would be quite fitting to put it on Dumbo, so I found it online.

And now the contents of my stocking.

Again, from left to right, we have:

Hot chocolate and a hot chocolate whisk – Tracy and I had both been craving hot chocolate for several weeks, but it had always happened late in the evening when we didn’t want to go to the store. Now we had a decent supply to last us.

Piroulines and Chocolate Bears – I have quite the sweet tooth, so of course, my stocking had to mostly be candy-based.

Drawing paper – As you all know, I had discovered quite the love of drawing Disney characters after our first trips to the Animation Academy and my subsequently finding tutorials to draw other characters online. I was drawing in a little notebook, but Tracy got me some actual drawing paper. I felt like quite the professional!

Now it was time for Duffy to open his present.

We hadn’t gotten him the Baby Bjorn he had his eye on, but we did get him…

A Pluto hat to match mine!

The first wave of excitement over for the morning, we decided to make some breakfast. Christmas is all about indulging, so we made ourselves some cinnamon rolls!

Gooey and delicious!!

Now it was time to go back under the tree for some more present opening.

My first present was COMPLETELY unexpected. It was… a Duffy shirt!!

Now, you may be wondering, does this shirt ACTUALLY exist? The answer is, officially, no. Disney hasn’t had the brilliant idea to make clothes featuring Duffy yet (at least in the States), but Tracy found an Etsy seller who makes them. So as not to infringe on copyrights, the seller had to list it as “Doffy” and “Duff-Bear.” We thought both options were funny. I loved my shirt, though, and couldn’t wait to wear it to meet Duffy.

Of course, it only made sense that Tracy’s first present would be:

The Duffy wristlet! She had been so sad not to get this guy on our first trip to World of Disney (and every subsequent trip after), so of course I had to get it for her. He looks especially like a simpleton in wristlet form and we love it.

For some reason, I never got a picture of my next present, but it was a “Learn to Draw Disney Characters” book featuring instructions for the Fab Five, and characters from Winnie the Pooh, Lilo and Stitch, The Lion King, and several Pixar movies. I was thrilled to start drawing, and suddenly the drawing paper from my stocking made extra sense.

Next, I got Tracy this flower pot from the Jim Shore Disney Traditions collection. I thought it would be fun to plant something in it for our balcony.

She followed that up with giving me this Jim Shore balcony ornament of… a raccoon! Since we haven’t found any raccoons to be our friends in OC (except those at the zoo), this was exciting for me.

Keeping with the raccoon theme, I gave Tracy her last gift: Raccoon earrings I had bought for her at a store in Nederland, CO when we were there in August. It was probably the earliest in the year I’ve ever started Christmas shopping.

Gift-giving done for the day, it was about time to move onto phase two of our holiday: getting ready for our family Christmas dinner. First, however, we had to enjoy another of our traditions.

We always get Chinese food for our Christmas lunch (because they’re the only restaurants that are open) and this time we wanted to try out the Chinese restaurant that was within walking distance of our condo. Moustache, our landlord, had recommended it highly, so we walked over and picked up some takeout. Our favorite Chinese dish is Kung Pao Chicken. It was definitely good, but wouldn’t make my list of the best I’ve ever had.

Soon after lunch, Steve came over to spend the afternoon with us and eat dinner together. We put on TBS and half-watched A Christmas Story (at least once) during its marathon while we chatted. After we’d had enough of the same movie on repeat, we switched over to the Disney Parks Christmas Parade and watched jealously, dreaming of being at the park right up the road.

We put Christmas dinner in the oven around mid-afternoon. One of Tracy’s parents’ gifts to us and Steve was to pay for our dinner fixings. We were, therefore, able to go a little more “all-out” than we could have done otherwise. The main course was to be Prime Rib. We were a little nervous about cooking this expensive hunk of meat for the first time and didn’t want to ruin it. Lo and behold, our worries about overcooking were all for naught. Instead, it took almost twice as long as the directions said it would for it to get hot enough to be safe to eat. We kept checking the temperature every half-hour to see if it was done yet once we had reached the scheduled dinner time, and almost 2 hours after it was supposed to be ready, it was finally done.

We put out the other sides we had made (Mashed Potatoes with Gravy and Scalloped Corn).

We carved up the Prime Rib and it looked perfect.

And now, we finally got to enjoy Christmas dinner. You can also notice the Stout from Steve’s favorite local brewery, Stone Brewing, which he brought over a growler filled with. It was really good!