The Polar Express

Friday afternoon, Josh and I loaded up the kids and went with my parents to Branson, Mo to ride the Polar Express. It was magical for the kids and precious to watch.

We stopped in Harrison for dinner and surprised them with their annual matching Christmas pj's and then drove on to the train depot. They didn't know for sure (although smarty pants Caroline guessed) where we were going until we walked into the the depot with all of the souvenirs.

As soon as they knew, though, you would have thought they had been waiting for years. The anticipation and 45 minute wait for our train almost killed them (or maybe that was me that almost killed them when they wouldn't stop asking, "HOW MUCH LONGER?!").

Here are the kids sitting at the station

I really was as excited as they were . . . randomly in the last month, both Bo and Tru have said they wished they could ride a train! I almost exploded from not telling them that their first train ride would be the Polar Express to the North Pole AND they would see Santa!!!!

The ride was great--hot chocolate, Christmas carols, we saw the elves working at the North Pole, the conductor came by and clicked our tickets, even the hobo made an appearance!

But, of course, the BEST part was when Santa came and we could all hear our jingle bells because OF COURSE WE ALL BELIEVE!!!

Sascha is not nearly as afraid of him as she should be (since she is usually really close to being on the naughty list)--she tackled him with a hug and then we snapped this great picture with all of them and Santa!

The rest of the weekend was also great (minus our Georgia Bulldogs getting torn up by LSU in the SEC championship). We took the kids to sit in Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted (he was too busy Friday night). This proved to be challenging for the girls--Caroline is afraid to ask for what she really wants because she has a perfect record and thinks this year she may not get her big gift and Sascha was very disappointed that you only get to go through the line once and laid down on the floor by the Santa station and threw a big ole fit . . . so much for you better not cry and pout and stuff.


It was a weekend I will treasure, especially since our kids are getting older so fast! I love this time of year even more as a mom than I did before kids . . . the smells, the lights, the music, the magic of it all . . . (insert happy sigh here).