December Daily: Dec 10

Back in September, I bought tickets for the Polar Express.  Actually, the whole reason my parents were originally going to come down was to go on the Polar Express with us.

It took us about 2.5 hrs to drive to the train depot up in the mountains.  We'd been planning on stopping halfway, at the last Chick-fil-A before we left, you know, civilization.  But everyone was asleep, and sure enough the iphone revealed that there was a McDonalds in the tiny mountain town.  But have you been to McDonalds lately?  Because, around here, they're renovating them all.  And sure enough the dining room was closed.  So the girls had their first meal in the car.  Surprisingly, it went well... and honestly, was much quicker than if we'd gone inside to eat.

It was all a surprise for the girls, so they were excited to get out of the car and see a train right away.

That's Becca steering.

We walked around town for a little bit as it was getting dark.

After a game of musical potty breaks, we went to get in line for our train.  And since I bought the cheapest tickets, we were essentially in a penned-in herd.  It wasn't clear where the lines were, who was in what line.  And the train was late arriving, so people were getting antsy.

But the girls were so excited to see the train come in!  (Only slightly more excited than watching the moon rise, though.)  We got on the train, and they were totally fine with it.  I'll admit, I was afraid someone might freak out and start screaming.  I still remember being really unnerved with the way the train rocked on my first ever subway ride.  (Though it was not nearly as rough as a subway ride.)

Train hats are from Grandma and Papa.  The look on her face is all her own.

We got some hot chocolate and cookies.

And we read the Polar Express.

Some of us weren't very interested in this part.

And we got our tickets punched.

Then we looked out the window at Santa's village.  On the way back to town, we sang some Christmas carols, and then Santa came through and gave everyone a bell.

I think we all had fun.  If we were to do it again next year, I'd probably consider staying the night.  It's now Thursday, and I still don't feel like I've caught up on the exhaustion from the weekend.