Christmas Train 2011

Hello Christmas! Hello Christmas Train! Howdy 23 degree nights! It's always fun to go to the Christmas Train and experience the lights, sounds, and smells of Dry Gulch that make it so incredibly special. The boys really enjoyed the train this year and would have taken the ride all night had the line not been about 45 minutes long from open to close. I have never been to Train on a Friday night and don't know if I will ever do that again. Just too many people! Pardon Steven and I looking like we just came out of a tanning bed, but I think the picture with Santa (FIRST EVER AS A FAMILY) came out pretty nicely! Don't know why the boys look normal color but Steven and I look like we work full time at Paradise Sun. Oh well, I just said in my last post that I was tired of looking like Casper:)

We went this year with Angela and her family. For the most part, the kids wanted hot chocolate. Not that I blame them due to the incredible cold but that stuff was boiling temperatures and took about 20 minutes just to cool down enough to not let your 5 year old scold his lips off. Luckily, the kids were pretty patient so we all took this opportunity to snag some family pictures by the fire.

Emma even let me hold her for longer than 2 minutes while we were waiting in line for the hot chocolate!
Another fun activity the kids all enjoyed doing was riding the carousel. In other words, the spinning vomit machine for this Momma. I do not ride carousel's! Thankfully, this one was only about 2 minutes (if that) long. Nothing negative towards the Christmas Train staff but I think this ride could be a tad bit longer. You wait in line forever and then you get on, just get situated nicely on the freezing horse butt, and then you spin twice around and it's time to get off again. Just something to think about Willie George....
Look at that cute face though:)

Eating, eating, and more eating is a little of what the Christmas Train is all about for us. Here was one of our several stops along the way for a special treat. This one was a cinnamon roll lathered in hot vanilla icing. Daddy and the boys ate it. I was tempted but was holding out for a later treat of a funnel cake (more on this later).

Soooo, we wait in line for the train, it's almost 9pm, my boys are extremely tired of pictures being taken of them, and they (and by they I mean Will) are already asking to go home and sleep. What 5 year old does that besides my son? Here is Owen's last attempt at trying to take a picture for Momma. He was so tired of them by this p0int and just tired in general. Owen, who rarely even sleeps in the car, was out after about 15 minutes in the warmed up Buick. He snored the whole way home. Needless to say, I DID NOT get my funnel cake because both boys by this point were tired and ready for sleep. This was wayyyy past their bedtimes. Oh well, probably better that I didn't eat one of those. I will try to remember that today as my mouth is still salivating over the powdered sugar goodness.

The boys were worn out. Steven and I were also worn out from about 7 hours in the car that day, a trip to Norman for a funeral, and Christmas Train. It made for a long 18 hour day, by the time I went to bed, but it was worth it. Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!