The holidays are in full swing at the Disneyland Resort, and magic is in the air!

Santa Mickey and Minnie Claus are ready to make your holiday wishes come true — or at least help you enjoy a churro. They’re givers.

Tune in next week for more holiday fun from the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World.

This post is part of UpTake’s Friday Family Series. If you would like to see your family vacation photo here please submit it via the contact link in the sidebar, subject line: Family Photo.

Photo: Whit Honea

Drool over the fancy cars at the Arizona International Auto Show.

Stuffed? Looking for something to do to walk off all of that stuffing and mashed potatoes and pie? If you’re in the Phoenix area, here are three great options to get you off of the couch!

Arizona International Auto Show – November 24th through the 27th at the Phoenix Convention Center. Drool over all of the exotic cars that you’ll never be able to afford. Daydream about winning the lottery. Adults: $10, Senior Citizens: $6, Military: $6, Children (7 – 12): $6, Children (6 & under): free.

The Phoenix Zoo is enjoying regular daytime hours on Thanksgiving, plus the start of the annual Zoolights extravaganza (which begins November 24th and has separate pricing) at night. Wandering around the zoo is the perfect way to walk off all of that turkey! And it will either be really quiet because of the holiday, or really packed because of the holiday. Risk is what makes life so exciting, right? Adults: $18, Children (3-12) $9, Children Under 3 free.

Crackerjax in North Scottsdale is open Thanksgiving Day from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. This amusement park features go-carts, a bunjy bounce, bumper boats, a driving range, a miniature golf course, batting cages, and an arcade. After a day of all of THAT activity, you might just be ready for seconds by the time you get home!

Photo by Tiffany Joyce

Eleventh Hour's creature of the corn.

Even though arctic Chicago winters are enough to terrify the bravest souls, the weather isn’t the only scary thing in the Windy City during Halloween.  A collection of carefully curated, gruesome haunted houses offer chilling annual rituals for many locals and tourists alike. I don’t recommend these for kids but for gore-loving teens and adults, these extravagant Halloween excursions will supply lots of frightful fun. Read More »

If you ask Linus Van Pelt he will tell you that the Great Pumpkin is a fan of the quaint and sincere pumpkin patch. He may be right, sincerity is nice, but so too the big and grand. Enter Disneyland. They are fans of pumpkins of unusual size. Also, rodents.

That’s right, I just combined Disney, Peanuts and the Princess Bride into three sentences. Impressive, isn’t it?

This post is part of UpTake’s Friday Family Series. If you would like to see your family vacation photo here please submit it via the contact link in the sidebar, subject line: Family Photo.

Photo:  Whit Honea