Another Christmas has past

This Christmas was a little weird. It just never really felt like Christmas. If you look around my house, you can see the evidence that it was here. Either that or a tornado came through. However, Jason does live here and we do consider him to be a human tornado.

We started Christmas week with a trip to Hood River. We booked a trip on the Polar Express to the North Pole and back. It was a lot of fun and they do a really cute job of acting out the Polar Express book. If you have not seen the movie, you really should.

We have tried to get tickets for the last couple of years, but they always sell out in October. I am just not thinking about Christmas in October. Steve deserves full credit for this one. He booked the trip the first week of October. He also booked it in the observation car, which was really cool. We didn't have to fight for seats.

We where on the top, but it really didn't matter. We went at night and there wasn't a lot to see. To be like the book, they encourage the passengers to wear their PJ's. Jason was the only one in our family who would wear his PJ's. We all agreed, we would wear ours next year.

A couple of pictures from inside the train.


I didn't do any editing of these pictures, so you will have to just ignore the red eye.
They came around and served hot chocolate. I was disappointed that they didn't sing and dance like in the movie. That would have been cool.

They conductor came and took our tickets. He punched them out, just like in the movie.


Here is Jason enjoying his hot chocolate.

The train journed to the North Pole where we picked up Santa and his helpers. While we waited for Santa to visit our section of the train we sang Christmas carols. The kids really got into it when we sang 12 Days Of Christmas. They divided our car in to two halfs and which ever side sang the loudest, won. Our side of course won. A couple of parents (Steve) got really into it and couldn't talk very well after.
Here is Santa.

He sat and visited with each of the kids on the train and left them with a bell. You need to read the book or see the movie.


When it came to Anthony's turn, Santa sat in his lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas. Did you know that Santa wants a trip to Hawaii?

It was really worth the money and we had a blast. The Hood River train does a bunch of different trips. The next one we are going to try is the Great Train Robbery. It's a longer train ride and you stop half way and have a BBQ.

Megan and Jason where also in the Christmas play at our church.



Megan played the mother of Mary. Our parish priest wrote the play and I think it is one of the better shows we have done.
Here are the 3 Wise Men getting ready to go on stage.


Believe it or not, I didn't take many pictures Christmas day. It was a great day and the kids are as spoiled as ever. I ordered a cookbook that I have been wanting for some time. This was a gift from my husband. I planned on opening it and then sitting and reading it all Christmas day. Did I mention I ordered this thing 3 weeks before Christmas and paid extra to get it here on time. It is still not here. According to the post office web site, it is still sitting in Kentucky. I have to wait until tomorrow before Walmart will do anything about it. I won't get started on why Steve and I tend to ship UPS or FEDX. I also won't get started on government run post office, Amtrak and Healthcare.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year.