Dan's Birthday Celebration(s)

Birthdays only come once a year, so we make the most of them!  Dan's birthday was last Saturday, but we've been celebrating for at least the past week.  I signed us up for every restaurant e-mail list I can think of, so we're inundated with birthday offers each year.  It's a fun way to go out cheaply & more often that week without cooking or doing dishes afterwards. :)

One night, Dan wanted to skip dinner and go straight to Coldstone's to use his buy one get one free offer.  Ice cream for dinner and a walk on the beach. I think I heard angels singing. :)

On his actual birthday, we went to Disneyland! That night, they were beginning a Christmas concert they run from December 1-20, and we wanted to check it out.

 We stopped to pick up Dan's favorite Southern California food for lunch - the California Burrito

And when we got to Anaheim, we bought dessert at Joe's Italian Ice stand. You choose your ice flavor and they add frozen custard to the top & bottom, so it tastes like a Creamsicle.  So delicious!

Christmastime is in full swing at Disneyland. I love how festive everything looks!

And their Christmas concert was just amazing.  You had to be a VIP to get seats for the event, but they held it outdoors right on Main Street in front of the train station, so there was also standing room around the sides of the seating area.  We waited in the standing area for about an hour before the concert started so we could get a good view, and it was well worth it!  This picture doesn't really do it justice, since the stage was about twice this big and full of choirs. They hold auditions each year for local high school choirs to sing at the event, so we were surrounded by family members who had come to watch their kids sing.  They had a full orchestra and some soloists from the Disney Choir, and everything was done beautifully.

Each night, they have a celebrity narrator who reads the Christmas story from the Bible, and after he/she finishes reading each section, the choir & orchestra perform Christmas carols before the next section of the story is read.  The whole concert lasts about an hour.  Dennis Haysbert read that night, and this is as close as my camera could zoom.  He has such a great voice, it was wonderful to hear him read the best story ever.

 A much better picture. On other nights, Dick Van Dyke, Molly Ringwald, Kurt Russell, and others will be the narrators.

At 7:00, we happened to be walking in front of the castle, when they suddenly dimmed the street lights and turned everything into a winter wonderland scene.  A pleasant surprise!

 We stayed late for the fireworks show, even though it was drizzling rain the whole time.  They were supposed to have "snow" fall down on the crowds right after the fireworks were over, but it didn't work - I assume because of the rain.  We'll have to go back to see it again.  There's no other way to see snow this close to the beach! :)

On Sunday, we took advantage of a Phil's BBQ birthday offer for lunch, and then topped it off with Dan's favorite chocolate creme pie!

No cooking, hardly any dishes, and we both gained about 5 pounds.  I'd call that a successful birthday week! :)