Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas, Everyone! I hope your Christmas was a great as ours!

Polar Express

We started our Christmas Eve off with a challenge for the kids. We began watching The Polar Express and were talking about how cool it would be for the Polar Express to show up in our yard. But the problem was that we didn't have any snow at our house. So, we realized we needed snow. Also, the train seemed to go through a canyon of some sort. We put the two clues together and figured out that we could go to the Grand Canyon to look for the Polar Express.

The kids were worried about missing Santa, so I told them that we could for sure be back in time for Santa. To sweeten the deal, I told them they could each bring one present to open. The catch to that was that they had to chose the present labeled "Don't open until Dec 24."

We drove to Flagstaff and then headed west toward the Grand Canyon. In the book, the boy's sister discovers the bell from Santa, so family is also very important to the story. Because of that, we decided to stop in a town called Williams (my maiden name). We had the choice to go either right (toward the Grand Canyon) or left (toward Williams). Abby needed the restroom, so we decided to stop in Williams and take the Historic Route 66 like in the movie Cars.

We got in to town and low-and-behold there was a train station with a giant train labeled Polar Express!!! We saw that the people there were all wearing their pajamas and we wondered if we'd be allowed on the train. We all got really nervous. While the rest of us went to the potty, Josh went to see if the train was expecting us, like they did for the kids in the story.

We found Josh and discovered that we couldn't enter the train without jammies. Then the train left. It left without us! We couldn't believe it! I thought we needed something to help us feel better, so the kids opened their presents. They were shocked to discover that each of them just opened a gift of PAJAMAS!!!

We still needed tickets. Josh asked the kids what the conductor told the boy to do in the movie. The conductor said to check his pocket. Josh looked in his pocket--nothing. Then we remembered the conductor told the boy to look in his other pocket. And there were the tickets! So we had tickets for the next train, pajamas, and a picnic dinner which we ate out in the freezing cold.

Matt was a bit miserable.

Abby remembered how to bundle up.

Emma happily gobbled her homemade sugar cookie as we waited.

Josh and Millie were so cute!!

This picture almost didn't make it on here. Who's that fattie with Emma? Gross. ('Fess Up Friday resumes next week!)

We entered the train, rode to the North Pole, listened to a reading of the Polar Express, got to the North Pole, saw Santa and his elves, got a gift from Santa and a few gifts from the Polar Express people, sang carols, and had a magical time. It was a great trip, but I think our anticipation was the most exciting part of the whole thing. I'll happily go again. But probably not on Christmas Eve. We'll do our exploring earlier in the season next year, I think.

In case you didn't get a good idea of what Josh's jammies looked like, here's a better shot. Isn't he the cutest thing in the whole world? Just ask the people of Black Canyon, AZ. Sorry, inside joke.

Christmas Morning

To avoid the huge montage of pictures we took this morning, here is one of each kid. This year's homemade gift was a pottery piece I painted with my sister, Tara. Tara made piggy banks for her boys and I made collectibles for each of my kids.

Emma has been asking for a turtle, so I got her one.

Abby loves horses, princesses and pink. So she got a pink unicorn.

Matt likes frogs.

I didn't know what Millie would grow up to like, so I chose this really cute lady bug for her. And it was really cool that we found a really cute new onesie with a lady bug on it too. It was on sale.

We had a wonderful time together. Josh shocked me with getting me Rockband Beatles. How the heck he pulled it off is a mystery. He's tricky. I can't wait to rock out with him.