Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas

Here's a video of Gracie wishing all of you a very merry Christmas on her Great Grandma Esther's piano.

 

Sunday, December 9, 2012

North Pole Adventure Train

On November 23rd we transitioned into Christmas and the kids all helped unwrap ornaments to decorate the tree.  This year we decided to put a few lights on the house and setup a small artificial tree downstairs just for the kids.  We'd also heard about a train ride called the North Pole Adventure out of Lewistown where the kids dress in their pj's, eat cookies and cocoa, sing carols and pickup Santa at the north pole...  we decided to give that a try, too.    

But first, Emmett's Christmas program was fun to watch and he was not shy.

  One more photo of Emmett hamming it up after a hunt a few weeks ago.  His version of what Dad missed that evening.
  We left for Lewistown Saturday morning, about 110 miles east of here, and it was snowing with about 6 inches of white stuff blowing at 50 miles/hr.  We took it slow and had only told the kids that we were going there to swim... 
 
 At lunch we told them about the train ride to the north pole and that we'd be picking up Santa along the way.  They couldn't wait!  The 'train station' was about 40 minutes north of town and we started loading at 4:30pm.  It was about 9 degrees and howling.
 Each car had about 8 tables and was decorated throughout.  The kids were given a packet of coloring sheets and a blank letter that had to be written before we picked up the Big Man in Red.
 We're coming up on the North Pole.  It was about 1 acre Christmas lights -- lighted reindeer, buildings and a landing strip.
 While we waited for Santa to make his way down to our car, we sang more songs and built up our courage.  We had 3 elves assigned to our car and they were great!  The trip wouldn't have been nearly as fun without Elf Elke.
 Everyone got along with Santa this year -- all smiles!
 And Elf Elke!
  Merry Christmas!