Gingerbread House and Polar Express

We've had a lot of fun celebrating the holidays the last couple weeks. Last Saturday I took N to a gingerbread decorating "workshop" at our local library. This activity is very popular in our town, so it books up really quickly. I am glad my friend, J caught me at the library back in October and told me I better sign up for it. It was so much fun and it was only $5!! The kids arrive at the library and the gingerbread houses are already assembled. Each house is "glued" (with icing) to a piece of foil covered cardboard. Each child receives a baggie of icing and is told to go ahead and decorate. There were several tables set up with four seats at each table. Every table had several bowls and plates of candies, cookies, pretzels and cereals for the kids to decorate with. Towards the middle of the workshop the head librarian gave each child one Peep brand marshmallow in the shape of a Christmas tree to put on his/her house. N was very interested in creating his house. We found two Nilla wafers that were stuck together and attached them to the house because they looked like a snow man. He was very meticulous about putting gum drops around the house in a pattern to serve as a fence. He was also interested in tasting nearly every candy, cookie, cereal. He'd say, " I will just try ONE of these, Mom. Just one." Christmas music was playing in the back ground and a nice blanket of snow had fallen on the ground outside earlier that day. It was such a great day! I loved it and N did too.

Tonight D took N to a nearby park for their "Polar Express" night while L and I stayed home. N and D had to leave before dinner to get to the event on time, so the two of them drove through McD's to get supper on the way there. N was super excited about that. The Polar Express event had lots of activities. I wasn't there, but I hear a conductor read part of the "Polar Express" book to everyone while they waited their turn to board the train. Then they got on the train and the rest of the story was read to everyone over the speaker system during the ride. The train ride was an open air train, so everyone had to bundle up for the ride. D and N were prepared with their hats and gloves, but D said N wouldn't wear his gloves because he didn't want to drop his ticket. If you've seen the Polar Express movie you know there's a part in the movie when one of the passengers drops her ticket and gets in big trouble. N remembered that from the movie and took that very seriously on his ride! The train ride ended at the train depot that was decorated as the North Pole. From there everyone got a ride to the main lodge where they got to talk to Santa.

As N and D approached Santa N told D, "That's not the real Santa. That's just a guy dressed up like Santa." N wore his "Santa Rocks" shirt and Santa noticed it. He said, "That's right. Santa rocks!" N thought that was cool. Santa asked N if he's a good boy. He asked if N puts away his toys, his clothes and helps with the cooking at home. N said "I do" to all of them. D said N warmed up to Santa and started to believe he might be the real deal. The thing that Santa said that won Nick over was when Santa said, "Wow! You've grown a lot since last year!" Then Santa asked N what he wants for Christmas and N said, "A John Deere tractor and a red hay bailer that makes circle hay." After talking to Santa and getting a picture with him, N and D had hot cocoa and cookies while they watched Rudolf on a big screen TV and sat in bean bags. Then N made his way through an inflatable maze before heading outside for pony rides. When D and N got to the pony rides, they realized there was a line and N said he was tired and would rather go home. He came home with a picture of he and Santa, a jingle bell and a Polar Express ticket. Apparently there were also ten crafts and a couple animal shows, but D and N did not participate in those because they didn't have time. They had a fun, busy night!