The polar express!

On Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend my parents treated all of us with tickets to ride on the Polar Express. My kids have been soooooo excited about this for the past month and could not wait to go. We headed down to the Landing (where the train station is) to do a little shopping and eat dinner before hand. I had also promised the kids I would take them to build a bear so they could make a very special Christmas friend to take on the train ride with them. This is where one of Adriana's thanful for ideas came from. The lady was great with all of us and let the kids do everything as a group so here they are rubbing the heart on their heads for knowledge before they put it in the bear (they did a few other things but I didn't take pictures of it all).

Joey wasn't quite getting it!Adriana making her bear into a special Christmas Angel!After we all ate dinner came time to change into our pajamas and head down to the train. Although I wasn't in any pictures since I was taking them all, I did have my pajamas on!

Here is the kids with Chris in front of the train.As we were boarding the train they had a snow maching going making some fake snow which my kids thought was the coolest thing!
Then we finally got on the train. The conductor came along to check tickets and to cut out the letter to each of the kids first name just like in the movie.Next came the hot chocolate (but it wasn't as exciting as in the movie because they weren't doing all the cool flips even though we tried hard to talk our guy into doing them).The kids loved drinking their hot chocolate (which I might add was all you can drink unlike the movie and a major bonus for us!)After the hot chocolate and cookies (which I don't have a picture of) we finally arrived at the North Pole to pick up Santa. The kids were all sooooooo excited looking out the window and seeing the North Pole!

But unlike the movie, we didn't get off the train at the North Pole. Instead we picked up Santa and brought him onto the train to visit everyone. He also gave each one of the kids a Christmas bell that Andrew refused to stick in his robe pocket because he was so afraid that he would lose it!

Joey still didn't want anything to do with Santa!And Santa whispering secrets to Adriana! Actually he was singing "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" and Adriana thought that was hilarious.

Then it was time to drop Santa back off at the North Pole and head home. The kids had so much fun on the train ride! It was definitely worth every penny spent on it to see their excited before hand and during the trip! This might have to be a new tradition if they still have it each year!