In December 2007, my brother & I excitedly visited Disneyland in Anaheim, California, USA. It really was the happiest place on earth! My brother and I had a 2-day park pass and we sure had ear to ear grins for the entire 2 days.

We had quite the grand entrance, because as we entered through the gates there was a band there to great us along with the Mad Hatter (see above).

As we went in December, the entire park was dressed in Christmas decorations which we absolutely LOVED. The atmosphere was so fantastic – it was so joyful and festive but it was still quite warm and sunny. We could not have picked a better time to go to Disneyland!

What better way to enjoy Disney but on a horse carriage?

I love Disneyland Main Street because of all the stores! There were parlours and boutique stores and this was my favourite – penny arcade!

In one of the many stores – we spent a lot of time marvelling at all the cute souvenirs. Too cute!

Here are one of the many Disney houses. They are so colourful and adorable!

We always had time for happy snaps of ourselves. :)

The famous teacup ride!

The Haunted House

I got splashed on Splash Mountain! It was so much fun.

I love Disneyland because you can dress up like a cartoon character for even just a minute as you pass by a store to try on these cute hats. Here’s my brother in a Goofy Hat! Hehe!

And here’s me in the wizards hat from Fantasia! Hehe!

I love this photo – here’s my brother in Pooh and me in Tigger :)

And of course there was Santa who graciously came to visit!

Disneyland was beautiful at night as all the buildings were lit up.

The Disney castle was so stunning at night!

At night, people filled Main Street to catch a glimpse of the Christmas fireworks. In December as it approaches the big day, Disneyland holds nightly Christmas fireworks to celebrate (see below video).

And afterwards, there was “snow” (some fake white flakes poured down from the lights). Regardless of the fakeness of the snow or not, it was so beautiful! It was my first time I ever experienced “snow” falling on me and it was a beautiful thing to experience in Disneyland.

HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!

About Casa Loma

My work recently held our annual Christmas Party at the Casa Loma (Spanish for Hill House), a Gothic Revival style house located in midtown Toronto. It is now a major attraction and a popular museum. It was originally a residence for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt and was constructed over a three-year period from 1911-1914.

In 1903 Sir Henry Pellatt purchased 25 lots from developers Kertland and Rolf. Sir Henry commissioned Canadian architect E.J. Lennox to design Casa Loma with construction beginning in 1911, starting with the massive stables, potting shed and Hunting Lodge (a.k.a. coach-house) a few hundred feet north of the main building. The Hunting Lodge is a two storey 4,380-square-foot (407 m²) house with servant’s quarters. As soon as the stable complex was completed, Sir Henry sold his summer house in Scarborough to his son and moved to the Hunting Lodge. The stables were used as a construction site for the castle (also served as the quarters for the men servants), with some of the machinery still remaining in the rooms under the stables. The house cost approximately $3.5 million and took a team of 300 workers three years to build from start to finish. Unfortunately, due to the start of World War I, construction on the house was halted. At 98 rooms, it was the largest private residence in Canada. Notable amenities included an elevator, an oven large enough to cook an ox, two vertical passages for pipe organs, central vacuum, two secret passages in Sir Henry’s ground-floor office and three bowling alleys (never completed). – Source: Wikipedia

The Casa Loma is a beautiful sight and not far from Downtown Toronto and should be seen both during the day and night. It’s close to Dupont station and is an easy walk too. It’s located at 1 Austin Terrace, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1X8, Canada

Source: Flickr

I didn’t get a chance to take any photos inside but it was gorgeous. Luckily a coworker of mine went around to all the tables and took photos of everybody so here’s my table. Two of the guys from my team brought their gfs, two didn’t, one guy didn’t come and so we were lucky to have Kate on our table who brought her bf. =)

The food was fantastic and the service was impeccable. In all – it was a great event.

Merry Christmas everybody.

As  much as I love my Marc by Marc Jacobs Turnlock wallet, I’ve been looking for a new wallet to replace it for over a year now. Because it is made of an incredible soft leather in cream, it instantly got ruined. All the dirt and grum of handling it day by day has coated it and made it completely grungy. But not only that, in the same week that I purchased the wallet – I managed to get ballpoint pen scribbled all over it and have never managed to get it off since!

I’m really particular about my accessories, so I’ve been looking hard for a replacement. There hasn’t been anything that I’ve really liked, but had been eyeing an LV wallet because I know two people who have said that their wallets have lasted over ten years! That’s definitely a lot longer than a week of ruining my MJ wallet! Now that is durable!

The LV wallets I’ve seen are pretty chunky, or are tri-fold, or don’t have much room for cards, or don’t have a zip for coins. But in Atlantic City, James and I were shopping at Caesers and I saw that the LV had my perfect wallet! Except it only came in Monogram :( And when we hurried to Sak’s, they couldn’t find the Damier Ebene either.Sad sad! We waited around for about 15 minutes for them to check all their drawers for it (their system said they had two) but it just could not be found. But as we were about to leave, they found it! YAY!!!!!! So JT got it for me for Chrissy and he got himself the sunnies which I reckon looks pretty good on him.

Anyway.. THANKS BABY. I LOVE IT. <3

Photos are below!

I went home and took another photo of it. White background looks cool, doesn’t it? Haha.

The night of Boxing Day, we went to Caesers hotel. The tree looks so amazing!

Then we had dinner there. Was delicious as it looks! Below is duck, seafood bowl, beef chow fun and mango pudding. Yum yum yum.

The night of Christmas, James, his parents and I drove down to Atlantic City.

We spent a lot of time at the pool which was cool because it was really nice and warm in there and I could lounge around in a bikini, sipping on Mojitos. I loved this, because the warmth reminded me of Christmas at home in Australia!

James was trying to model a lot with his new Tiffany Atlas ring that I got him for Chrissy:

We also went later at night which was really really nice. I took a panorama:

James forgot his trunks, so we didn’t go swimming and just lounged around by the pool.. But I must say that we are still hawt.. Ha ha ha

The following photo is disappointingly blurry. I don’t have a steady hand :(

James said he looks like a stalker in that photo. Funny. Hahaha.

Thursday arvo (Christmas Eve), I made by way to Toronto City Airport and took a Porter Flight over to New Jersey. Had a lovely dinner at James’ brother’s place (Ryan & Kim) with his family.

Had lots and lots of yummy sushi (thanks to Kim’s family). Also filled my stomach with lots of delicious turkey, ham & cranberry sauce. Kim makes the most delicious ham and cranberry sauce!

I didn’t take any photos of what Kim made but it was DELICIOUS. I only have sushi photos for some reason. I think I was too consumed by trying to get all the food in my mouth and down my belly that I didn’t even think to take photos.

There was also mini bite sized sushis for little Tyler. Cute!