Daily Diary – December 9 2010

Fair warning: this post has a LOT of photos. Feel free to skip 🙂

On October 1, I had bought tickets for the four of us to go on the Polar Express train ride in Sacramento. We’ve never done this before and I’ve wanted to for a few years so this year, I put a reminder on my calendar months before and got tickets as soon as they went up for sale. Even then, there were no weekend spots left so David had to cut school and we both had to take days off work to be able to go.

Sacramento is about a 2-hour drive from our house. So after Nathaniel woke up from his nap, both the kids got into their Christmas PJs we’d bought just for this occasion and we all got in the car. Thanks to Jake’s awesome driving, the trip was much faster and painless. As soon as we got there, the first thing I did was to ask Jake to take a photo. The kids, however, didn’t care to play along. This was the best shot we got.

David was so excited and happy to be there.

We had an hour extra before Will Call opened up so we took the time to eat some lunch. David was feeling very emotional and kept hugging his dad again and again. Telling him how much he loved him.

Nathaniel was just being cute. Sooooo cute.

After lunch, I went to pick up the tickets while Jake parked. We tried to get a photo of the kids together, but as always, Nathaniel wasn’t having any of it.

We then had to wait in line for them to open up the train. David was being quiet and watching everyone.

Nathaniel, on the other hand, was playing with the line separators and being all excited and squirmy. But sweet, of course.

As soon as we got on the train, we asked one of the volunteers to take a photo. It’s not all that great but we’re all in it and that’s all I care about.

The kids were very excited and looked out the window as the train moved to the North Pole. They gave us hot chocolate and cookies and they read the Polar express book out loud and the conductor even signed our book. They also played Christmas songs and songs from the movie.

We finally arrived at the North Pole and elves and Santa were there to wave to us. (Just in case you notice Nathaniel’s clothing change in the next photo, we took his fleece pajamas off cause he was really sweaty. We just happened to have a cotton Christmas pajama set, too, so we put that on. Thank you mom and dad for getting these great PJs for the kids!)

The kids were overjoyed and kept looking out the window to watch him.

After a few moments he disappeared. Just as we all wondered where he went, he showed up on the train. Nathaniel couldn’t take his eyes off of him.

And Santa gave all of us the first present of Christmas. The jingle bell. Just like in the book. Jake and I were both quite choked up by now. Seeing our kids so happy and excited was so wonderful for both of us.

Nathaniel watched the elves waving as the train rolled back out of North Pole.

I tried to capture the joy of the boys but there was too little light and too much movement. Sometimes those are the best photos.

When we pulled back into the station, everyone clapped with gratitude and Nathaniel joined in with vigor.

We then got back in the car and the amazing Jake drove us back home. Nathaniel fell asleep in the car but the rest of us listened to music and just felt grateful for such a full and amazing day.

Now I am really tired and will crawl into my bed with my book. A lot more to come tomorrow. I hope your day was full of bliss and family, as well.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for so much today. For this magical day. For wonderful family time. For seeing my kids so happy. My husband so emotional. I am such a lucky person.
2. I am grateful that my parents arrived home safe and sound. It was a harrowing trip with a 10-hour layover in Germany due to a storm. But they did make it home and I am deeply grateful.
3. I am grateful that we’re safe. We saw four traffic accidents today. Pretty bad ones and while I was sitting in traffic, I reminded myself that it’s much better to be in traffic than to be the cause of the traffic. I was just glad to be safe and with my family. Sometimes we lose perspective and I am trying to work on that.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. going on the polar express train {* his pick for the journal}
2. getting a present from santa
3. getting to have chocolate milk, hot chocolate and a cookie!!