I thought to myself, if it is that important to my children, and it is actually doable, then we should make it happen. Only Jacob and Drew had vague memories of even being there before, and our children were all at the perfect ages to go. I talked to Tyler about it. When would be a good time? Tyler long ago declared that he would never go to Disneyland unless it was in February, because we had such a good, crowd-free experience when we took our family in 2011. Winter 2021? We tentatively had a tropical getaway scheduled for ourselves that winter in anticipation of our 25th wedding anniversary (plug here for having a master family calendar - it has changed my life), and I didn't think two pricey vacations during the same season sounded like a good idea. 2022? Jacob would be a junior which is probably the worst time to skip a week of school. I started to wonder if we should go ahead and go in 2020. Realizing that we could give a vacation as Christmas sounded fantastic, because all of a sudden I would have no Christmas shopping to do! I consulted with Tyler and he wasn't sure - he liked some aspects of it, but he just didn't know if it was worth the money. Not until I told him Hannah's reaction. I had told her what I was considering, and she thought it was a fantastic idea. She said getting a trip to Disneyland for Christmas was one of her favorite memories. That sealed the deal for Tyler and he was on board.
I spent hours researching hotels to stay in and was even able to find a tiny Cyber Monday deal that saved us a whopping $60 (total) on tickets. I found what I thought would be the perfect hotel suite for our family of six that combined affordability, location, layout, and the ammenities that I thought were important. Tyler helped me pick dates in between the business trips that he had scheduled. I was all ready to book the hotel for the last week in February when I looked at the family calendar and realized our proposed vacation week was kind of a big band week. I reached out to the percussion director to see how that would affect Jacob and learned that it was, in fact, a big deal, and if he was going to miss it, then he recommended moving him to the lower band. Bad news! Jacob worked hard to make the top band and was really happy with his friends there.
Back to searching - I picked new dates for January that meant not missing any after school band rehearsals, worked around Tyler's travel dates, and when there were no conventions on the Anaheim calendar. At one point I had three different weeks booked with the hotel as I was trying to figure it all out because I was convinced it was the best place for us to stay. Honestly, shopping for individual Christmas gifts would have been simpler, but not as fun in the end, and we definitely would not have the long-lasting happy memories.
There is nothing quite as satisfying as being ready for Christmas morning when there are still a lot of hours left to sleep before 7am!
A Disneyland vacation costs much more than we spend on Christmas gifts in our family. Tyler didn't want us to buy anything else for our kids, so I said OK. I did buy a variety of sugary cereals that are often requested and never at our house for the reveal. I spelled out Disneyland and put a letter on the bottom of each box - didn't want to be too obvious, right? Then I wrapped them. On Christmas morning, Camden heard the rattle of cereal inside of the gift that he was about to open and was sure it was Legos...except it was a box of cereal instead. He laughed. After the second box was opened the smarty pants kiddos figured out what all of the boxes were under the tree and the younger ones started to get frustrated and a little whiney. Let's just say the whole unwrapping part was anti-climatic, made more difficult because Callie & Hannah got actual gifts since they were not going on vacation with us.
By the time the kids unwrapped the note saying it was CEREALOUSLY time to go on a vacation and to look for clues to see where we were going, they didn't even care! They were just disappointed that they didn't get any real gifts. Callie tried hard to rally the troops and help them figure things out. It fell over kind of flat, but I knew that at some point the kids would be happy, so I just rolled with it. Grandma & Grandpa Rogers gifted us with 6 months of Disney+ and that really saved Christmas. Our kids were super excited about that! We spent the rest of the day playing games, eating fun foods, and watching movies. We had some Schafers and Grandpa join us which made it fun. Besides the grumpy unwrapping of gifts, it was a perfect day.
We stayed focused on experiences and enjoyed the day - we hardly took any pictures! I'm pretty sure that Jacob is unwrapping a box of cereal here.
Two days later I went to a class at the gym and talked with a friend. She mentioned that the day after Christmas, her kids were already bored with their new toys and things. I felt so grateful that even though Christmas had felt like a bust, that we never had the let down - we just enjoyed being together. The kids had to wait 4 1/2 weeks for their vacation, but that was the perfect amount of time for the anticipation to build. We looked up facts about Disneyland, downloaded the app and checked wait times for rides, looked at the map, and at one point started watching a YouTube video a day of their top rides. It was so much fun!
We went and had a WONDERFUL time, and in hind sight, my gratitude for taking this vacation only increased. In March Tyler was called as the bishop of our ward. Callie got engaged. The CO-VID 19 quarantine happened. As each event unfolded, it became more apparent to me that it was inspiration to take the vacation when we did. Too many things happened in the coming months that would have discouraged it. I am so glad that we went!
A fresh blanket of snow on Christmas morning is a beautiful reminder that the very best gifts come from God.
