Polar Express

We made our way up the mountain to the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad to ride on the Polar Express!  The kids have been anticipating this for a couple weeks now and were so excited. Other than the pouring down rain, the trip was perfect.  The kids thought it was so magical! Grayson said it was awesome to finally meet the "real" Santa instead of one of his helpers :)  What a relief to know that Santa really does exist!  It was very much like the book.  The kids wore their matching jammies that I made them.  They looked precious. We had a blast just being together and watching the kid's faces light up.    

We spent some time in the train museum

while we waited for our train to depart.

Gavin loved watching the train go around.

Claire in her jammies that mommy 

made her.

Grayson in his jammies that mommy 

made for him.

Gavin in his jammies that mommy

made for him (sorry for the repitition.  

I am proud of myself :)

In spite of the pouring down rain we finally 

made it on the train.  Time for the sweet treats!

The hostess' serving the hot cocoa.

The ticket master punching our tickets.  Good 

thing we held on to them!

Grayson finally getting to meet the "real" santa.

Claire was so awe struck that she forgot what

she asked for and had to ask me what was on her

list!  Each child got a jingle bell from him.

Gavin watching all of the lights in the north

pole.  I love how you can see his reflection in 

the glass.  So sweet!

Our fam on the train.  Since the $10 picture they 

took of us had all of us blinking we opted to ask the 

table next to us to take our picture instead.  Much

better (and cheaper)!

I have to say that I was so disappointed that it rained.  

We were not able to get many pictures outside with the

train.  I think it is so worth it to at least go do this once

with the kids.  It was a lot of fun!