Utah's Polar Express Christmas Train

Today the Drama Queen presented us with the second gift of Christmas. She has been planning this for over a month and although it didn't go off exactly as planned, it was wonderfully fun and magical!

Last night Drama Queen came home to spend Christmas with us. She was so excited to share her gift! She had taken the time to create beautiful red train tickets for each of us and then she announced that tonight we would all be driving to Heber so that we could ride on their Polar Express Christmas train. The kids whooped and hollered and could hardly wait!

At 4:30 we piled in the two vans and began the hour or so trip up the canyon. Just before Park City, Bossy and Gamer's van started having trouble. It was overheating and the engine was thumping. This was so troublesome for us because they lost the transmission in their other van just over a week  ago and they had only owned this used van for a few days.

We took them some anti-freeze and a quart of oil and they got a few more miles down the road, but it wasn't long before we realized something was seriously wrong. My sweetie ran us into Heber and then drove back the several miles to pick up Bossy and Gamer's family.

When we were all finally at the depot, we picked up our tickets at Will Call and hunkered down to wait for the train. It wasn't long before we were boarding. Baby Doll could hardly sit still! She was jumping up and down in the seats. She was so thrilled to be sharing this adventure with ALL of her siblings except Teach who is still in Texas.

The train finally fired up and we were on our way! We sang songs and the kids danced in the aisles. We were served hot chocolate and cookies as the train made its way across the valley. After about 45 minutes the train stopped. Shortly afterward, we could see what appeared to be the North Pole with Santa waving madly at the passing children.

A bit later, Santa appeared in our train car and spoke with each child and gave them a bell. We sang our hearts out all the way back to the depot. The girl with the microphone kept everyone involved, she even had the Gym Rat and Dog Walker running up and down the aisles!

When our ride was over, we piled all 18 of us into the 12-passenger van and drove into town to get something to eat. It was almost 9:30 by then and the kids were hungry. They loved this train-themed hamburger joint! In the meantime, Bossy and Gamer called roadside assistance and arranged to have their van towed. That meant we were all in for a long ride home. The Gym Rat offered to ride in the very back with the boys as we all crowded in.

After a fervent prayer for safety, my sweetie drove us slowly home and in spite of the settling fog, we arrived without incident. Tomorrow is our huge extended family party and I still have tons to do. Hope you are having as much fun with your holiday as we are with ours!