Christmas is officially a week away! When getting a gift, remember that it isn’t always about the price, but the thought. As long as it’s something that you feel can be useful and meaningful, it will be a good gift. For those of you who aren’t quite sure what to get for someone special in your life, here’s a few simple gift ideas.
A handmade fleece blanket. All you need for these are two large pieces of fleece, some open space, some scissors, and people to help you tie the blanket. These are always really fun to make and useful to the person you’re making them for! Finding fleece with something that the person enjoys or likes can help make the blanket a little more special.
A drawing or photo. For this semester of school, my sister and I took a photography class and some the pictures could make great Christmas gifts! A pretty drawing that you did or a nice picture framed can also be special and easy gifts to wrap up and gift to someone.
A book or movie they might like. Depending on the book or movie, the price can range, but these are always easy to find and can be used over and over again.
Candle or lotion. Once again, depending on where you get these items, the price can range. A good-smelling candle or some nice lotion can be a great gift for a girl or woman in your life. You can never have too much of this stuff!
Giftcards or money. Sometimes, a giftcard or money can seem impersonal. Sometimes though, they aren’t bad ideas for gifts because people can choose what they buy with the giftcard or given money. For someone preparing to do some traveling or a college student in need of some money, these two are never bad ideas.
You’re definitely not limited to this very short list of gifts to get someone for Christmas. Get creative and have fun with it! When shopping for gifts, don’t get to caught up in whether or not someone will like it. That can be important but people should learn to be grateful for all that they get, even if they don’t exactly like it. Happy Holidays to everyone and have a great winter break and Merry Christmas and New Year!
After a great day at Disneyland before, California Adventure was the next thing my family and I would tackle. Disney California Adventure was an amazing overall experience. There was so much to do and see and my family and I got through most of it.
My aunt, uncle, mom, sister, and I arrived at Disney California Adventure around 9:30 or 10 in the morning and decided to get to Cars Land first. Cars Land was so well created and made my family and I feel like we had just stepped into the movie. It was so cool! Of course we had to do the Radiator Springs Racers ride and so we walked that way first. The wait may be been about two hours but it was well worth the wait. The ride was so cute and it was fun to travel through Radiator Springs and then win the race in the end. It may have been rigged but that’s okay. After that thrilling ride, we got our picture taken with Mater at the Cozy Cone Motel and then made our way towards Paradise Pier.
Paradise Pier is home to many enjoyable boardwalk games, Ariel’s Grotto (a restaurant), several rides, and the World of Color show. We decided to walk around and see where we would be eating later tonight, which would be at Ariel’s Grotto. Allyson, my sister suggested that we ride on Ariel’s Undersea Adventure which was a ride in a seashell through Ariel’s journey. There was no wait which was great and the ride was also very cute.
Once we finished that, Allyson and I led everyone to Hollywood Land where we got to go to the Animation Academy, meet Anna and Elsa, and then attend the Animation Academy and draw Zero from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Frozen is my favorite Disney movie, so of course we had to meet the royalty of Frozen. Anna and Elsa were very sweet and Anna even gave my sister and I a hug! The Animation Academy drawing class was a lot of fun because we got to draw with an actual Disney artist and he complimented my sister on her drawing which was awesome.
Meeting Anna and Elsa!
After visiting the Animation Academy, we found a place to grab some really good hot dogs for lunch and then headed back to Disneyland to get on a few rides we missed yesterday. We ran into Cinderella on the way back to Disneyland and got to meet her and take pictures with her of course.
The next thing we did was walk over to Adventureland to get some Dole Whip and also take the Jungle Cruise. Before we got to California, I heard a lot about Dole Whip and how amazing it was. Everything I had heard about it was true. It was so refreshing, light, and delicious. My family and I were able to enjoy the beloved treat while waiting to get on the Jungle Cruise which was also an enjoyable and interesting ride. Our tour guide for the boat trip was hilarious and the animatronic jungle animals looked so realistic and were fun to watch move around.
Dole Whip… It can only be found in Hawaii or at Disneyland
Once that was over, we walked back to Fantasyland to walk through Pixie Hollow, rode the Monorail, and do the Alice in Wonderland ride. While the Monorail didn’t go around the whole park, it was cool to be in it and see as much of the park as we were able to. The Alice in Wonderland ride was very cute and fun.
This was one of the caterpillars to ride in for the Alice in Wonderland ride.
And of course, to finish out our time in Disneyland, my family and I had to do Splash Mountain. The line had been terribly long all day and we knew that the ride was popular so we decided to get Fastpasses earlier in the day so that we could come back later in the day and get in line, wait for a short amount of time, and then ride Splash Mountain. That ride was my favorite out of any ride we’d been on. It wasn’t jerky or ridiculously fast like the Matterhorn, but it had enough speed and drops to be thrilling, enjoyable, and worth everything. I got soaked on the ride, and that probably happened because I sat up front in the log.
Splash Mountain
On the way back to California Adventure, we did a quick walkthrough of Sleeping Beauty’s castle and then made our way back to California Adventure to get to our reservation at Ariel’s Grotto in time.
We made it to our reservation with plenty of time to spare and we were even able to get in like ten minutes earlier than our reservation because we checked in early. The food was wonderful. We were served a three-course meal, which started with a choice of soup or salad, then an entree, and it finished with dessert. The salad was a strawberry, pistachio, and feta cheese salad, I picked their fire-roasted corn cakes as my entree, and then for dessert there was a lemon frosted madeline, passion fruit creme brûlée which was to die for, and then a mocha chocolate pastry. I somehow managed to eat it all and I was satisfied with the food and the service. After dinner, my family and I were given our tickets to the preferred seating at the World of Color show. World of Color is a show at Paradise Pier that involves fountains and lots of water and pictures and clips are projected on water. We purchased the package deal of dinner at a specific restaurant, which for us was Ariel’s Grotto, at California Adventure and preferred seating access to World of Color. We got to stand right up near the water and see the show from a very good spot. Even though we got somewhat wet, the exciting light show, reflection of Disney movies and pictures on the water, lasers, and flames kept me happy and entertained throughout the entire show. It was a wonderful experience and that like no other and I would definitely do the package deal again to get such good seats for World of Color.
The best part of the meal. (I forgot to mention that we were celebrating my sister’s birthday as well as mine and the restaurant gave us cupcakes for it.)
That was a great way to end our last day at the Disneyland Resort and I know that will definitely be going back in the future. Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth and I’m so glad I had the chance to go.
Walt and Mickey on Buena Vista St. at Disney California Adventure
I’d also like to add, Happy Father’s Day to all dads out there. Thank you for everything you do for us all. 🙂
