The Christmas Train

It's that time of holly jolly year again! Time for our family to head out to the Irvine Park Railroad to visit Santa and chuckle to ourselves while Ellie sobs in Santa's lap. Now with bonus second child!

It was a really nice night. Last year we met up with Lexi and Whitney by chance - this year we all had an early dinner and caravaned over for maximum fun (and then met up with Jonathan and Nathan by chance!) We arrived closer to 7, which meant almost no waiting in lines. We got on the train quickly, had our ride through all of the trees adorned with twinkle lights and then were right in line to meet the big guy. Ellie had been saying all day that she was excited to see Santa, and she was going to sit with him, and she was going to ask him for a candy cane, and when the time came, she watched Lexi and Buddy the Juddy (as she calls Judd) hop up and talk to Santa and then... SHE DID IT! SHE SAT NICELY WITH SANTA!

As you can see, it definitely took her a minute. And she did not touch the big red man, but then she was happy to chat with him. All she wanted was a candy cane and in that bag next to the arm chair was a whole pile of them for her to pick from. PERFECT.

The girls had a great night - they had plenty of time to chase each other around in circles (which they love) and this also helped keep them warm, since it was pretty chilly in the canyons. Especially for Ellie, since I assumed her fleece hoodie was in the car, but it got left at school today (thankfully, Lexi had a hoodie that Ellie squeezed into.) And see Adam's cute socks? Neither of them made it back to the car, somehow. Thankfully, despite all the warnings about the cold, we survived and the Christmas Train did not turn into the Donner Party. Obviously we would have eaten Adam first, as he is helpless and probably not as gamey as Ellie.

After our ride back to the station, we went and had refreshments. Ellie had her first ever hot chocolate, which, SURPRISE SURPRISE, she loved. Everyone got to bed late, which I feel like is the theme of the holidays. Poor Adam was so tired that he fell asleep in the car, and since Tim was picking up our second vehicle, I just shut the garage door and let Adam continue to snooze while I got Ellie into bed.

The kids' cute matching outfits were a present from Mimi, and we love them. They have horses on them, which means that they can be used for days to come, after Christmas has passed. I think the kids look so cute - we may end up doing matching outfits every day from her on out.