The Polar Express

Last year, we contemplated taking Bennett on the Polar Express train ride. It is a train ride to a near-by city, the "north pole." The cost of the trip was quite a bit, and we decided to wait. But this year, with his obsession with trains, I wanted to capitalize on that love. Plus, he's young but he's at that age where he would believe in the magic of the trip. So, I purchased the tickets and we were so excited to go!

The night before the trip, though, Bennett came down with a case of the flu, which he graciously passed to me on Saturday. I was feeling pretty yucky but was determined to go. I was checking the train schedule all day and saw that it was running about 2 hours behind, most likely due to the snow fall. At 6:00, I got a call from the coordinator saying that the train was now 3 1/2 hours late and we were going to plan B--taking a bus. I was so disappointed as I have never been on a real train but also very disappointed that Bennett wouldn't get the experience that we had been talking about for weeks. But, thankfully, he also loves buses and thought that was the best thing ever!
We arrived at the depot and had som cookies and hot chocolate. The conductor of our "bus" sat nearby, but Bennett refused to have his picture taken with him.

We also received a copy of the book and Bennett checked out every picture as we waited for our bus to depart.

We finally arrived at the North Pole and headed into a heated tent to see Santa.

I was surprised but Bennett jumped up on Santa's lap, refused to tell him what he wanted for Christmas, but did allow him to sign his book.

He also received his own bell from the reindeer's harness.

He was too interested in his bell to take a picture with mom :-)

He rang the bell all the way back to the bus and most of the way home--until he fell asleep.

The trip wasn't all that I had expected for the cost and I was really sad we didn't get the full effect with the train ride, but Bennett seemed to have a great time, and that's all that counts! Since that day, he wants us to read the book every day and he is now obsessed with the movie! But that has been one of my favorite Christmas books and I'm glad to have passed that love on to my son.