december daily devotionals

many moons ago we received as a gift a little spiral notebook full of christmas stories. the idea was to have a scripture, a song and a story for each day of december leading up to christmas.
over the years and through a few moves, i couldn't always find it when december came around. so i decided to post them here; having another copy increases the chances of being able to find it when i need it. and i can share them with my friends to boot.
i have seen a few other similar lists here, here and here.
anyway, here is a link to my list {i have updated and re-arranged some of the stories.}

deciding about solar panels {in which i have to do math}

if there ever was a roof that was perfectly suited to installing solar panels, it is our roof. its pretty much the poster child roof for solar power.

we’ve been thinking about installing solar panels. we’ve been doing lots of math. and we’ve decided to do it. and then we’ve decided not to do it. and then we’ve decided to do it again. and then we’ve decided not to. see a pattern?

yeah.

i will let you into my head and tell you the thought process i have gone through with this whole decision/indecision.

when we first seriously started discussing it, i imagined we would be able to go off the grid. i said, how cool would it be to not have a power outage? how cool would it be to not have to wonder and worry about the price of electricity? how cool would it be if we could even put in electric heaters and have free heat all winter? how cool would it be to be awesome and be producers instead of consumers? pretty darn.

but. {there’s a but…}

here is how it really works. {oh, where do i start?}

first of all, when you put in solar panels, you connect yourself to the city power supply and send in the electricity that your solar panels are generating. the power company {in our case, our city} then gives you a credit for that electricity toward your power bill. so, no, we would not actually be off the grid. and, no, we would not escape the effects of power outages. {boo.}

additionally, we have a special thing {well, not so special i suppose because everyone has this} called a breaker {at least i think that’s what it is called, but doesn’t change the story...} through which the electricity must pass. and this “breaker” has a certain capacity, and that limits the amount of electricity we could generate from our rooftop. so even though we have the room on our roof for close to 50 panels, our “breaker” can only handle 32. according to our calculations, that is not enough to cover all of the electricity we use. so our electricity would not be free, we would still use more than we produce and have to purchase the difference from the power company. {boo again.}

on the plus side, we would pay much much less for electricity. {more math on that coming up.} here is something i learned about how they charge you for electricity. there are tiers. for us, the first 500 watts is a tier. then your next 500 watts is in another more expensive tier. then the next tier costs even more. it may continue from there, but that’s how many tiers show up on my bill. so, if nothing else, we would be only using enough to keep us in the least expensive tier. that’s something.

now we do math.

in case you don’t know, solar panels cost a bundle. a big bundle. right now there are government rebates. the feds will give you a tax credit of 30% of what you spent. these rebates will be available for about 2 ½ more years. your state will most likely have a separate rebate. ours is up to $2000. after the rebates go away, putting in solar panels on your roof is not cost effective. so, if you think you want to do this, you better get on it while the rebates are available.

there are plenty of companies who will install the panels for you. we have had several come over to give us a quote. yowzers. did i mention it costs a bundle? a boat load? boo-coo? of the several quotes we’ve been handed, there was only one company who even came close to making us think about paying them to do it. their price is $7000 more {after rebates} than installing the panels ourselves. this company made a big old deal about how they were giving these away to us and that they would expect us to tell all of our friends all about how awesome they are, because they are trying to get their company into the market and compete with other companies. so even if we did pay them and tell everyone all about it, who knows if they would give you the same “deal.”

that brings us down to installing the panels ourselves. and by “ourselves” i of course mean that the professor will do it.

and… back to the math.

the question now gets trickier. if it costs us ten grand {after rebates} to install our solar panels all by our lonesome on our poster child roof, how long will it take us to break even and get that boat load of money back into our pockets when we aren’t paying for electricity anymore?

i averaged out what we have spent on electricity historically in this house, and adjusted for 3% inflation in energy costs, it would take us roughly 7 years. so in order to break even mathematically, we would need to stay put for at least that long. then and only then would we start to see any actual savings. if we stay in the house for 30 years from now we would then have in our pockets 60 grand that we would have otherwise paid to the electric company. the longer we stay, the more inflation becomes a factor. if we are paying $2000 a year right now on electricity, in 30 years it will be more like $5000.

what’s the likelihood that we don’t move for 30 years? i don’t know...

but wait, there’s plenty more math to do here.

is that the best use of the ten grand?

let’s say that instead of buying solar panels we take that ten grand and throw it into our retirement savings. then we wouldn’t have this big project on our hands where my husband is up on our roof for a month and could fall to his death or dismemberment. what would happen to the money in that scenario? at 12% interest, it would double 4 times over the next 30 years. so we would have 299 grand to add to our retirement.

that is a big jump from the 60 grand in savings.

that’s it, we’re not doing it.

except, how about if we install the solar panels and then take the money we aren’t paying to the electric company each month and instead throw that into our retirement? in 30 years we would have 421 grand. that’s better. but the catch is that we have to absolutely make ourselves invest that money. and we have to live in this house for the next 30 years.

if we moved after 20 years, the number comes down to 390 grand. that is still more than just investing the 10k. and i think 20 years is a reasonable length of time to plan on living here.

if not, and we moved ten years from now, the amount comes down to 295 grand. in that case, we are better off investing 10k into mutual funds right now and moving on with our lives.

to summarize, these are the things we need in order for solar panels to make sense

mathematically and put us ahead of the game with our money:

1. rebates

2. install the panels ourselves

3. do not move for at least 20 years

4. invest the savings. religiously.

if one of these is missing, then it is not worth the trouble.

the math may be different for someone else’s specific situation, but this is where our math leads.

this girl's guide to disney's california adventure

here is our list of favorite rides at california adventure:

radiator springs racers. hands down my favorite ride in the entire park. your most important task for the day is to get straight into line for fast passes before the park opens! we got in line right away, yes, before the park "opened" and our fast passes were still timed at late in the afternoon. literally you snooze you lose with this ride. but such a fun ride!

your second most important task is to send someone to get a ticket for seating during the nightly world of color show. even though it is an outdoor show, you need to pick up a ticket asap for your assigned seating area. and even though you have assigned areas, you still have to stake out your spot. about an hour before. i sat and claimed our seats while the professor took the kids on a roller coaster i had no interest in. great show. we saw it twice. if you sit in the front, you will get wet.

after world of color is done, go back over to cars land. you won't want to miss being there after dark, with all the attractions lit up. the rides are closed, but you can just hang out and enjoy the ambiance.

my next favorite ride was probably soarin over california. i wasn't sure if i could handle it, with my issues with heights, but it was great. went back again for this ride.

i am not a roller coaster fan, but my kids really digged california screaming. it is tops on their list.
my daughter also couldn't get enough of the twighlight zone tower of terror; my son went once and was done. i did not participate in that ride either.

i think the muppets 3d show is highly underrated. i thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it was only on our list of things to check out if we had nothing else to do. it was a hoot. c'mon, it's the muppets!

we also saw the aladdin show, which was really good. i don't think it is always showing, and maybe even was pretty temporary so it might not be there anymore. but it was full of spectacle and humor, as all great shows are.

the redwood creek trail was a fun surprise. it's a big play area with lots to do. you can even become a wilderness explorer and earn your wilderness explorer badge {sticker}. also a good place, if your kids are at the right age, to rest your feet while they run around a bit. just make sure you have a plan to keep tabs on where the kids are, or you'll waste some time rounding them back up.

the pretty good rides were
toy story mania. this is apparently the one that was the big attraction prior to cars land opening. you wait in a long line for a long time for a pretty short ride. you sit in a car and shoot at objects on screens, and then find out your score at the end. similar to the buzz lightyear ride in disneyland, much longer line here. in my opinion, not worth the wait. i really don't know why this ride doesn't have a fast pass.

maters junkyard was pretty fun. it's a quick ride, with a fairly long line, though not ridiculously long. i would say it is worth throwing in the mix.

the monsters inc mike and sully ride was another one of those sit in a seat, look at movie pop ups ride. not so great. but short lines, so not much to lose unless you're really in a pinch for time.

and finally, the rides that were pretty much "meh"

the red trolley cars. these would be nice if they actually went somewhere. you get on at the tower of terror and get off by the main entrance. they would be cooler if they went farther around the park so they could serve a purpose.

turtle talk with crush. you watch a little cartoon on a big-ish screen. slightly clever because the turtle interacts with the kids, but not really much else to it.

luigi's flying tires. this ride has a really long line. and it was not a great ride. it might be more fun if it weren't such a short ride, but then that would make the line even longer. not worth the wait.

the grizzly river and ariel's undersea adventure were both closed while we were there. i know we would have liked grizzly river, and ariel's undersea adventure is supposed to be pretty great, though i can't say for sure.

overall, we spent 2 days at the park, and i have to say that after lunchtime on our second day we felt like we were just killing time a little until the world of color show. i would have enjoyed going back on radiator springs racers a few more times, but the lines were so stinking long.

this girl's guide to disneyland {tips i tell my friends}

here is my run-down on the rides. some of the big ones are probably obvious, but there were some that surprised me...

our favorites were:

indiana jones. this one was closed most of the week when we were there. it does have a fast pass, and you'll probably want to use it. the line is pretty long.

space mountain. this also has a fast pass. the line didn't seem crazy long, but it might be busier at other times of year.

big thunder mountain. it has a fast pass and the lines were generally long. this is probably the most tame "roller coaster" and very fun.

splash mountain. it has a fast pass. the line was either really long or really short. it was kind of weird. we got fast passes because the line was long but then when we came to use the fast pass, it was only a ten minute line. so we ran into the regular line, went on the ride, and then went in the fast pass line, since we still had time to use it. i also discovered that if you want to get wet, sit in the front. i sat in the back, but not the very back seat, and i didn't get very wet at all, which i preferred. if you sit in the very back, the water that is in the boat will end up in your seat, but generally the further back you sit the less wet you will be. easy of course sat in the front. :-) another note is to hold your feet up a bit to keep the feet from getting wet, or possibly wear flip flops for this ride.

star tours. this is a fun one, and we discovered that not all of the pods show the same show. so if you go on it more than once, try to get into a different pod and you'll see a different show.

haunted mansion. the line goes pretty fast because it's a "people eater" ride, so we did this one when we had some extra time here and there.

the matterhorn was also fun, but a very long line and no fast pass. we went there first thing on one of the days so the line was better, but actually still pretty long for first thing in the morning. probably other people had the same idea. what they do have for this ride is a "single rider" line, where you can get in a separate line if you don't care if you ride together. my advice would be to do the single rider for this ride, because the seats are basically single anyway. then just wait for each other at the end.

pirates of the carribean was closed unfortunately while we were there. i was disappointed about that. so was nemo, which was on my list of recommended rides, but i can't say for sure if it would have been worth it. mickey's magical map was on my list but it wasn't running either. small world was closed too, and i have never been on it.

the fantasmic show was really neat. i don't know if the schedule is the same all the time, but they had 2 showings when we were there with fireworks in between. the cast member we spoke with recommended doing the fireworks and then the second show of fantasmic, because people stake out their spot hours before. {why??? would you waste your time at disneyland doing that??} anyway, we headed over at the end of the fireworks and went on the bridge by pirates of the caribbean. it was a great spot.

one secret we discovered from a lady standing behind us in one line who easy told her life story to {imagine that} is that on the big mark twain river boat, you can ask to go up to the top with the driver. i believe it is called the wheel room. that was really fun. the kids got to ring the bell and blow the whistle and sign the super secret guest book and get a certificate. that seems to be a pretty well-kept secret, so i would definitely ask them for that.

another surprise was the pirate's lair on tom sawyer island. you take a little raft over and there are all these caves to go through and explore. the warning here is that you can easily lose children. we didn't realize this and the kids quickly got away from us and finding them again in the tunnels took quite a while, so be aware of that. but my kids could have stayed there all day.

these rides were kind of in the middle:

the jungle cruise...this is a tricky one. i like the jungle cruise. the kids loved the jungle cruise and laughed and laughed at their corny jokes even after the ride was over. but i kid you not, that line goes for miles and the ride is pretty short. i wouldn't say don't do the jungle cruise, but somehow try and hit it with a shorter line. if that's even possible. i don't know.

the buzz lightyear ride was ok. the line goes pretty fast. so we just squeezed it in when we had extra time. 

the disneyland railroad is nice for getting you to another side of the park. it stops at the main entrance, and in the new orleans area and over by fantasyland/toon town. the monorail is not helpful for getting you from place to place. it only stops in tomorrowland and in downtown disney outside of the park. but the fun thing we learned is that you can ask to ride in the very front. it fits 4 people, which was perfect for us, but if your group is more than 4 people you will have to split up. and apparently it's not really a big secret, so you might have to wait longer if that is something you want to do.

similarly, toon town was a little crazy with the kids and the wandering off, because there is one ride, or maybe two, but its mostly just a lot of "stuff" in cartoon style to wander through etc. cuddles loved it, but i wasn't very excited about trying to keep track of where my kids were in there. by the way, the ride is roger rabbit, which has a fast pass, but it is a pretty lame ride, especially since my kids have no idea whatsoever who roger rabbit even is. so that was a weird ride actually. i would skip it if i had to.

these were the rides that were a little less worth a wait in line:

pretty much everything in fantasyland. :-) although preschool aged girls might disagree. for us, these are the rides where they basically send you through a diorama of scenes from the movie. if i were going to choose just one, i would say peter pan, because you are flying around in the pirate ship so it's a little more fun. but in general the lines in fantasyland were way too long for the enjoyment factor of the ride, for my kids at least who don't care about princesses. the other thing i learned was that the storyland canal boats and the casey junior train take you through the same area, so i would just choose one or the other and call it good.

the tiki room. my kids gave it a big thumbs down, but i was so curious about what it even was, i just wanted to know. but here is the thing we figured out after the fact: apparently everyone on the planet wants a dole whip and the only place to get them is by the tiki room. there is a pretty long line to get them. if you go in to the tiki room show, you can get on the inside line to get your dole whips, and then eat them while you watch the show. i wish i would have known that, and especially if time is an issue i'm sure you will appreciate that tidbit. also my kids would have enjoyed the show more if they were eating ice cream during it. and for what it's worth, we didn't think the dole whips were that amazing.

you know what? disneyland really is a lot of fun! i knew it was, but even i was surprised with how truly magical it feels to be there. they really do a great job. i honestly had planned this to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, but they really have me thinking about how we can go back.  

disneyland delish {what we ate}

i really have to devote a separate post to the food at disneyland.

we were rather deliberate with our food choices on our trip. we didn't buy a lot of food in the park; we ate our hotel breakfast each morning and ran across the street to grab burgers from the dollar menu for most other meals. we decided on two sit-down meals and a few special treats.

my very most favorite things that we ate were at cafe orleans on our first day. we really wanted to try the monte cristo sandwich and the pommes frites. we were not disappointed. it was literally one of the most pleasant dining experiences we have had as a family. ever. we ordered one monte cristo and split it between 3 of us. and then we shared one order of the pommes frites. those were delicious themselves, but when you add in their special sauce--heavenly.

source

we spent about $30 for our meal. the waiter was so nice and even brought free drinks for the kids. we also ate in the afternoon, sort of a late lunch/early dinner to avoid the busy eating times. this meal was a win on every level.

{cuddles brought in a fruit tray from a snack cart}

our other sit-down meal was not quite as much of a win. we decided to try the buffet at big thunder ranch barbeque. we went for lunch rather than dinner to save a little money, because it runs pretty high. i was expecting it to be a little more enjoyable for the price. the chicken was pretty dry, though the ribs were ok. the beans were fine and the corn was too. it was nice that they bring the food to you, rather than having to go get it like most buffets. but, i probably wouldn't spend the money on it again. 

the treats we tried were dole whips, chocolate peanut butter sandwich, and cake pops. the dole whips weren't my favorite, and the peanut butter sandwich was fine, but just an overpriced treat. the kids enjoyed their cake pops, which i thought tasted more like cookie dough. they were nice and big so they lasted a while. 

we got sundaes from gibson girl ice cream parlor one night and took them with us while we waited in line for the big thunder mountain railroad. i was pleasantly surprised by the ice cream. i was hesitant to spend that much money on it, after all, they were just scoops of dreyers. but it turned out to be a pretty great treat, and i gotta say having a sundae to split while standing in line at disneyland on a warm spring night just after dark makes for a pretty darn good memory. 

i was even able to step on the scale when i got home and see the same number i had seen before leaving for our trip. i definitely felt like that was a success. 

things i learned at disneyland

{this is not necessarily a comprehensive list.}

disneyland doesn't have wifi. this probably doesn't matter to most people who aren't too cheap to pay for a data plan on their phones. but it applies to me.

speaking of cheap, the least expensive souvenirs are the pressed coins from the machines scattered around the parks. you can get a map their locations from city hall in disneyland or from the chamber of commerce in california adventure. this was actually something my kids loved searching for. if your kids like geocaching, i'm betting they'll like these. there are machines that crank out pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. the prices range from 51 cents for the pennies to $1.25 for the quarters.

no yo-yos allowed. bringing things to keep your kids busy in line is great. just not yo-yos. something about them swinging around and whacking other people... if you want to know the best thing to have with you in line, it is a game boy. didn't even come close to having to recharge the batteries, those things last forever!

if you stand next to my daughter in line, she will talk your ear off and tell you every last detail about her life's story along with everything she has ever learned. ever.

heimlich can speak spanish. it's funny.

magic morning vs. extra magic hour. so here's the thing: magic morning is for disneyland, while california adventure has an extra magic hour. this is when the park opens an hour early for some guests. when we purchased our tickets it said they came with 1 magic morning. only when we tried to enter california adventure for its extra magic hour did we discover that those are different than magic mornings. extra magic hours at california adventure are strictly for guests staying at the disneyland hotels. so that was disappointing. and they were turning away several other ticketholders who also were planning to enter the park early; clearly that distinction is unclear to many people.

most cast members are awesome. some are a little less so...

some rides are worth the wait in a long line. some are a little less so...

hats are your friend. not only are they great for keeping the sun out of your eyes and averting a sunburn, they can help you spot someone in a crowd. we "accidentally" bought our kids matching hats just a couple of days before and it was one of the smartest things we did. i could just look for a green hat in a pinch.

i am as tall as minnie mouse.

if you ride on luigi's flying tires, and you decide to wear a short flowing skirt, remember to wear full coverage undies, because your skirt will fly up and everyone will see them. {thankfully, the lady whose skirt flew up was wearing such undies.} alternatively, make sure not to wear a skirt. the ride is basically a giant air hockey surface.

my son is a screamer. wait...i already knew that.

the penny arcade consists of 7 old movies that you can pay a penny to watch through a peek hole. luckily my son thought they were hilarious and wasn't disappointed that it wasn't a penny arcade in which one can play video games for a penny a piece. {for that you must go to the starcade, though each token costs a quarter.}

the monorail isn't helpful for getting you to a distant side of the park. the first time we hopped on, i was assuming that it would take us from tomorrowland to the opposite side of the park where we planned to catch our next ride. as it turns out, there are only 2 monorail stops. one in tomorrowland and one outside of the park at downtown disney. so we stayed on and ended up back where we started and then walked over to the opposite side of the park for our next ride. luckily the monorail counts as a ride so we didn't "waste" time while we were on it. if you want to get to another area of the park without walking, the disneyland train is better. it stops in several places.

the lego store is fun.

when leaving the park on your last night even a 'tween will ball like a baby because he-or-she-who-will-remain-nameless doesn't want this experience to end. even after 5 full days. the fact that it is midnight doesn't do much to minimize the waterworks...

turning 12 on mother's day

can i just tell you how much cuddles loves it when his birthday lands on mothers day? yeah, not very much.
in truth, i would rather have mother's day on any other day of the week than on a sunday. because then we could go out to eat instead of people trying to cook for me. and frankly, it is not enjoyable for me to have people in my kitchen "cooking" for me.
although i did end up with these, which was pretty ok...

but other than that, i tried to stay out of the birthday boy's way and defer any decisions to him.

for breakfast he chose donuts

he got the new lindsey stirling cd, mindcraft legos, and a tron wii game.

and for dinner it was time for steak night

we're gonna eat it right

steak is such a treat

it is the world's best meat!

our all-go-no-quit disneyland vacation

we have been planning this trip for a while now. for the last few years i have wondered if we were the only family not going to disneyland. it seemed like we just kept having to say, "well, i guess we'll have to try and go next year."
but we finally made it.
and we were determined to make it count.
we researched things out to try and find a time when the park wouldn't be crowded and the lines would be short. since we homeschool, we can basically go whenever we want. our sources told us that the beginning of october and the beginning of may are the slowest times. since the professor doesn't teach classes during may and june we decided on may.
whether this strategy worked is debatable. to me it still seemed pretty crowded. i thought, "if this is a slow week, i would really hate to be here when it is 'busy.'" we found some lines were pretty short, some lines were long but moved quickly and some were just plain long. who knows, maybe everyone else googled it too and decided to come during a "slow" time. do you see now how that could backfire??

we checked around for prices and decided to go for 5 days, one park a day. each day you add to your ticket costs less, and if you want to go to both parks during the day {park hopper} it costs more. we figured we would be fine with one park at a time. {and we were.} we ended up doing 3 days at disneyland and 2 days at california adventure.

first stop: star tours

the tickets to the park were the most expensive portion. we found tickets on the website for getaway today and they seemed to have the best prices. but before we bought ours, i decided to check on ksl {our local website similar to craigslist} to just see if anyone was randomly selling their tickets for some reason. we didn't find any of those, but we did find a local travel agent who was able to get us our tickets for $100 less than what we had been able to find. {that includes every other travel agent as well as getaway today prices.} we paid $890 for 5-day tickets for the 4 of us.

minnie wanted to have her picture taken with me.

we also decided to spend less on our hotel so we could spend more days at the park. we definitely made the right call on that one. each morning we got up, showered, ate breakfast, and headed to the park. as soon as we got back to the hotel each night we collapsed and went to sleep. we were just across the street from the park at a best western. it was pretty basic, yet clean. the breakfast wasn't exactly spectacular, but our tummies were full every morning. but with so much to do inside the parks, it would have been a waste to spend extra time and money on our hotel. we spent $524 for 5 nights at the hotel.

 in radiator springs

it was a great trip and definitely worth the wait*. i just hope any future vacations we take will still seem fun!

*the last time i was at disneyland was....

wait for it....

1985.