1.09.2015

Santa Visit and The North Pole Express

This year we took an adventurous train ride to meet Santa on The North Pole Express in Grapevine!  Mrs. Claus was on the train and so were a few singing elves!  The elves were more like teenagers wearing waaaaay to short of skirts but they were festive at least!  Ha!  Okay, so I had read all these reviews about how awesome this experience was and in my mind it played out so differently than the reality of the experience!  I thought we were going to go on this ride through the country sipping on hot chocolate and meeting Mrs. Claus and Santa on the train while Christmas music played in the background!  At least that's what the description on the website led me to believe!  Instead it was a very slow ride down the train track past a few highways, an industrial park, and a few trees.  The train stopped after 15 minutes and reversed in the opposite direction back to the depot!  Ha!  During the ride, Christmas music was playing and the little elves quietly sang along, encouraging all of us to sing and be merry too, but it was cheesy!  Mrs. Claus stopped by and said "hi" at the end.  No hot chocolate and no Santa!  But then we exited the train at what was considered the North Pole.  It was "snowing" and there were lots of trees!  Santa and a few of his elves performed a song and dance number for us on stage.  Afterwards, Michael made a mad dash to get in line for the other Santa to sit on his lap and we received our cold chocolate milk to drink!  I'm laughing at this experience!  The kids were thrilled but I was naive in my expectations of this experience!  It was a little lame and fun all in one!  
 Mrs. Claus
 Michael's "get me outta here" smile!
 Santa's elves

 The North Pole
 Singing Santa
 Mommy and Briggs


 Santa time!
 Piper asked for Barbies and a microphone.  She also asked Santa to bring her friend Nora a guitar and her friend Campbell a microphone.  Briggs requested an orange t-rex!


Although it didn't meet my expectations, I really am glad we tried this out.  It was fun and memories were made!

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